


We're still here

by Noalein



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Joker is a little shit, M/M, NG+, Spoilers, and they'll all have their moment, basicly everyone - Freeform, eventual Akira/Akechi, eventually, it's going to happen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2018-12-11 23:12:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 34,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11724561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noalein/pseuds/Noalein
Summary: “I thought a long time about how I am going to explain my situation to you ...but I’m not sure myself what exactly is going on. I suppose the best explanation I have been able to come up with is that I have travelled through time.”or simply, Haru's New Game Plus.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fill for this lovely prompt over at dreamwidth:  
> "I absolutely love new game + AUs but they're all Akechi or Akira. Not that I don't love that but wouldn't it be interesting if someone else had a NG+? Like one of the other Phantom Thieves or a Confident?"
> 
> I'm cross-posting it here to have it in a proper format without the comment boxes getting thinner and thinner.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this story! :)

“I wish I could see them just one more time.”

It’s a simple thought that everyone who had lost someone dear to them had at least once. Wishing to say all the things left unsaid, to make up, to not have regrets, to do better – so many wishes always came to mind.

That’s why Haru found it ironic that just at this very moment, her mind was blank. Haru Okumura stared at her father who… who was gone, but right in front of her. Her father, Kunikazu Okumura, was talking to her in the flesh and for the first time Haru was not listening.

“F-Father,” she finally stuttered out in pure awe, tears in her eyes. Her father looked down at her with a frown and a familiar feeling settled in her stomach. “This is Father before his change of heart,” she realised. And she had just cut him off.

“A daughter of Okumura should not interrupt her father,” he lectured her coldly, so impersonal as if she was nothing more than a tool for his success and without thinking familiar words fell out of her mouth: “Yes, Father.”

“Good, you need to understand what it means to carry the Okumura name,” he reminded her and some other reminder would have surely followed had his phone not rung that very moment. Her father took a look at the caller ID before he turned back to her, “we will continue this when you get back from your trip to Hawaii.”

“Yes, Father,” she answered again, dazed. Hawaii? But that was… she took out her phone: Five o’clock in the evening on 7th September.

Haru nearly dropped her phone. This couldn’t be…! She sprinted to the TV and turned it on to the news, nothing about Shido’s landslide win and the news lady mentioned todays date: 7th September. Next she checked the newspaper on the table: September 7th. With trembling hands, she looked at her phone again and looked up the current date on the internet: 7th September. The words didn’t make any sense to her. Had everything been just a dream? … No. It had felt too real. She could never have dreamed that up, the feeling of losing her own father, the joy of belonging with her first true friends… and of slowly disappearing. It had to be real.

And she could prove it! …probably, she thought and looked at her phone that seemed to actually hold all the answers. Taking a deep breath, she looked for a familiar icon. 

The eye icon of the Metaverse Navigation App was staring back at her.

It was real. Everything was real. It was…!

“Haru-sama…?” A sudden voice asked uncertainly. Surprised, she nearly dropped her phone, but managed to grab it again -she held it close to her heart as her own little lifeline – and turned around. It was the Okumura family driver. “Are you feeling ill, Haru-sama?,” the man asked.

Haru flushed. She had been talking out loud! “N-no, thank you,” she quickly answered and with one last look at the navigation app, she pocketed her phone carefully.

“Very well, may I inquire about your luggage for your trip, Haru-sama? Okumaru-sama has tasked me with driving you to the airport,” the driver informed her.

Had she packed already? She couldn’t remember, everything was so confusing. If only Akira-kun was here, he would have made a funny comment, but still kept a level head. Or Mako-chan, she would have quickly analysed the situation.

“Oh! Mako-chan…!” she gasped out loud happily as she remembered: there was a meeting at the airport for all the third years that went on the school trip and Mako-chan would be there!

“Haru-sama?” the still waiting driver asked again, Haru had forgotten that he was there. How rude of her, but she couldn’t be angry and smiled at him instead, “I am alright, I just remembered that I need to see a friend from school. Please, let us leave as soon as possible.”

The driver agreed and she was on her way to the airport far too early. Only Akira-kun’s homeroom teacher, Kawakami-sensei, was already there. She was trying to read something in the busy airport, at first Haru thought that the woman looked relaxed like this, but as she came closer she could hear Kawakami-sensei murmuring to herself how annoying it was to have to be here so early.

“Kawakami-sensei?”

“Woah…!” the teacher nearly fell out of her chair. With wide eyes, she turned to Haru. “Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to startle you, Kawakami-sensei.”

“Huh? Uh, right, no worries. You’re Okumura-san, right? You are really early,” the teacher greeted.

“Ah, yes, I was hoping to talk to another third year before the meeting,” she confessed as she sat down. She started playing with the end of her purple blouse.

What was she going to say? Surely Mako-chan would remember her… but what if she didn’t? She hadn’t really thought this through and just came rushing in. What if it had all been a very vivid dream after all? She checked her phone again – the app was still there. Now what if this was a dream or an illusion of some kind? How would she be able to tell? Both her memories and this seemed real. Haru pinched herself. The pain certainly felt real.

“Um, are you alright, Okumura-san?” Kawakami-sensei was looking at her concerned. Haru looked up, startled again and lied to the older woman, “…yes, I’m fine.” Kawakami’s look told her that she didn’t believe a word the student had just said. “If you’re sure, it’s just that -how do I say this? - you seem on edge.” The teacher looked down and following her gaze, Haru found that she was still twisting her blouse in knots and realising them again – endlessly like her mind seem to be going around and around. Just when she thought that she could catch a clear thought, it escaped her again and she remained confused and lost.

“I won’t push after this, but if you want, you can talk to me. You may not be in my class, but you are still my student, you know?” Kawakami-sensei continued. The kindness of her words touched Haru’s heart. “Thank you, Sensei,” she said once she had made up her mind, “I’m just… scared. I am meeting a dear friend again, but I am not sure, if she still remembers me. If any of my friends remember me, to be honest.”

“I see,” the teacher seemed deep in thought, “I can’t say much since I don’t know your whole situation, but facing them is better than running away – I mean you do want to see them, right? And if they don’t remember you right away and if you want to, you can always start over. It doesn’t matter when you start over, just that you do.“

The young heiress couldn’t stop herself, she just had to giggle at Kawakami-sensei’s passionate speech. “Ohshoot…!” the teacher cursed so fast it sounded like one word, “I said too much, didn’t I? …but that doesn’t mean that I take anything back. It’s never too late to start over, that’s something I learned recently.”

“Please, I’m sorry, I wasn’t laughing at you. I was just reminded of myself, my friend actually taught me the very same thing. He is incredible. Everyone of my friends is, they are all truly kind people. Thank you for reminding me of that, Kawakami-sensei.”

How could Haru have forgotten that? It was as if with her disappearance all she had learned from and with her friends had vanished as well. Taking a deep breath, she remembered that she had already betrayed her old self and looked at the airport again. The world already looked different, brighter.

In the distance she saw Mako-chan enter the airport. Early as usual, her back straight, head held high and her steps sure of herself. Haru listened to the familiar steps for a moment, imagining herself running next to Queen and Joker as Noir. She could do this, one step at a time. With her head held high, she took her first one towards Mako-chan.

\--

“Hello,” Haru greeted with a kind smile. Mako-chan blinked in surprise at her as she came to a sudden stop because of the unexpected greeting. “Hello,” the student council president greeted back, pushing a strand of dark brown hair back behind her ear, “we are in the same year, aren’t we? I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name.”

Oh.

Mako-chan really didn’t remember her after all. Or maybe she was just pretending not to know her? But there would be no reason for her to do that, right? So the others most likely didn’t remember her either… But she didn’t know that for sure, she was not going to lose her courage and hope!

“I’m Haru Okumura, Ma-,” Haru quickly caught herself, “Nijima-san, it’s nice to meet you.”

„Likewise, Okumura-san,” Mako-chan’s voice was like steel, the sharp business tone she had when dealing with cognitions or shadows. The usual warmth she held during meetings was absent. Haru missed it terribly.

“I actually wanted to ask you something weird,” Haru pushed forward, “do you remember me at all?”

“Huh?” the brunette let slip genuinely surprised. She took her time to study Haru in more detail. A bit of the sharp business look in her eyes softened for a moment before it was back. 

It hurt to see it and hear the accompanying words: “I’m sorry I can’t seem to remember you, Haru-san. Perhaps if you tell me when and where we met, I might remember.”

Haru bit her lip. Obviously, there was no such meeting and she didn’t want to make up a story and lie to Mako-chan. Just the thought of lying to her friends who she trusted with everything broke Haru’s heart a little.

Wordlessly, Haru shook her head. No lie would pass her lips and poison her friendship, the bond with her true family. She wanted to doubt herself and say “No, it’s nothing” but it would be just another lie, turning away from the truth she knew in her heart, her reality.

Her mind was made up, though her heart was beating loudly that she nearly couldn’t hear her own words. “I know you, I know about the Phantom Thieves, Mako-chan,” it seemed to be the only thing she knew right now as she reached inside her pocket to pull out her phone. She held the nav app out for Mako-chan to see.

The student council president’s eyes first widened in shock but strong-willed Mako-chan quickly caught herself and her business face was on again. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you’re talking about, Okumura-san.”

“I wish to talk,” Haru pushed on as if she hadn’t heard the other girl, maybe she hadn’t, not clearly at least, “to everyone. I need to warn you and ...there’s so much I need to tell you. Please, Mako-chan.”

\--

Makoto Nijima was at a loss for words. Her mind was racing, metaphorical alarm bells were ringing in her head ...but it was weird, her heart was beating fast and her belly was light. She had a hunch. A hunch to trust Okumura-san -no, Haru. Okumura-san just sounded wrong somehow.

A schoolmate Makoto shouldn’t know with an app she shouldn’t have. And with a warning for the Phantom Thieves that she shouldn’t know about.

Finally, Makoto’s own hunch. “Trust your hunches, they are what make someone good at solving cases,” her father had told her and she would.

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do,” she finally promised. Haru’s sincere thank you and open smile, somehow they squeezed her heart.

She felt like she was forgetting something.

\--

Akira Kurusu was silently watching people at the airport.

Ann was complaining and wondering about where her favourite partner for verbal teasing was.

Morgana, Futaba and Yusuke couldn’t be here at the airport. And Ryuji was late, as always, even the promise of a school trip to Hawaii (and bikini babes, as Ryuji had insisted that they were the best about the trip) couldn’t change that. So there wasn’t much to see there.

All that was normal, so the only one that was different was Makoto. She was quiet and kept glancing over to a big group of students. Akira couldn’t pinpoint who was making his teammate this nervous but when he looked over there ...in his mind Hariti sang a soft lullaby to her child.

The Empress. Akira didn’t have a confidant for this arcana yet but he would meet this person soon. His personae also knew his confidants before him. The accompanying headache was there as well.

Just then loud footsteps ran towards them, it was Ryuji who came to a stop just before them. He looked ready to collapse: “Urg, I wasn’t expectin’ to make a mad dash like this...”

“Coming late even on a day like this?” Ann immediately asked. Ryuji just sighed loudly, muttering something about it not being his fault. But Ann wasn’t finished yet, “and is that all you’re bringing?”

“It’s only four nights, right? Ain’t it enough?” the blond boy answered without hesitation.

“It’s not!” Ann protested and turned to the only other girl for support, “right Makoto?”

“...huh?” Makoto blinked at her. She had not even noticed the blonde duo’s usual bickering. Now even the last person would know that something was up. “Sorry, I was thinking ...actually, there -oh!”

Makoto cut herself off as she saw Mishima approaching their group. “Hey, guys, they want us to gather near the boarding gate soon,” the blue haired boy informed them before he went off just as fast as he had appeared to tell the other students as well.

“Right,” Ann filled the short pause left by Mishima, “so, what is it Makoto?” The student in question looked around them and pushed a strand of hair back in thought before she smiled at them. “Now is not the best time, we should actually be going.”

Akira looked at Makoto, the crowded airport and soon the airplane would be bad places to talk, and nodded at her. “Alright,” he acknowledged shortly.

Ann and Ryuji immediately followed his lead and become excited again. “Alright! How about we take a group shot before we take off?”

Said and done. ...and Futaba reviled that she had bugged his phone. She could certainly do more then see through his camera. Eh, that might come in handy someday.

Akira looked at the photo again. It was a good picture but too many people missing, when they were back they would have to make another one with Morgana, Yusuke, Futaba and ...and who? Sojiro maybe? No, not Sojiro.

“...Akira, are you coming?” Makoto called him. It was time to board. What had he been thinking about again?

\--

9/8 – Thursday

This trip sucked, Ryuji decided on the first day. There was no difference to Japan, really. They went to the beach, just like they had been just some time ago in Japan. They looked up stuff online, like in Japan. Got food together, just like in Japan!

Even their group was the same! No hot bikini babes for him, nope. Just the same old group, man, they were just missing four more people and Ryuji wouldn’t believe that he had even left the country.

The only cool thing was that he heard people talking about the Phantom Thieves from time to time. Even people in Hawaii knew them, how cool was that?!

The Phan-Site was getting more and more famous, too! Damn, the ratings were rising like crazy. Right now some guy called Okumura was at the top of their poll for the next change of heart, again. Okumura, that sounded familiar. And he had a bad feeling when reading the name.

Arg, this made no sense. He didn’t know the guy, so no point thinking about it and ruining the mood. They had made their international debut! Now was the time to act, damn it! Maybe the bad feeling was just jetlag or somethin’ like that.

\--

9/9 – Friday

Okumura Foods. Haru Okumura.

Makoto was ashamed that she only made the connection two days later when they ate at Big Bang Burger and Ryuji informed them that the CEO of Okumura Foods, Kunikazu Okumura, was the most wanted person for a change of heart. And there were those rumours about the company as well.

This couldn’t be a coincidence. It seemed like she had to evaluate the situation anew. There was no time to try and enjoy the school trip, she had to talk to the others.

“What is the matter?” Yusuke, who had arrived at Hawaii just today in what seemed to be a weird twist of fate, asked her just this moment. Perfect.

“I actually need to talk to all of you, I think it would be best to call a meeting,” she looked at their leader, “if that is alright, of course.” Akira’s eyes pierced though her, he had only waited for her, she realised. “Let’s contact the others,” he agreed calmly, nothing ever seemed to surprise him.

“Huh? I don’t get it, are we having our target meeting here?” Ryuji asked Ann behind them. “Donno, but it seems important,” the other blond shrugged.

“Ah, a meeting in a foreign country, I wonder how it will differ from our usual ones. Perhaps the atmosphere will give birth to new ideas,” Yusuke was talking excitedly but mostly to himself.

“Dude, it’s just gonna be same as always.”

\--

It was evening by the time they had managed to drag Futaba away from her research. As always the redhead did everything tech related in leaps and bounds and she told them that she had hit the jackpot but didn’t want to spoiler them just yet.

They had gathered in Akira’s hotel room -Ryuji was quick to kick Mishima out- around a laptop that they had borrowed from a teacher with the help of a lie, Makoto’s status as student council president and a good word from Kawakami (which meant that she wouldn’t forgive him, if the laptop was not returned in pristine condition). After a bit of hacking, the screen showed Futaba and a grim looking Morgana next to her.

“What’s the situation?” the cat-like thief asked first.

\--

“Dude, this sucks,” Ryuji complained for the dozens time as loud as possible. On cue a “Stop complaining, Ryuji!” followed from Ann.

“Like you’re one to talk, you’re sleeping on a bed!” Ryuji even made the same gesture at the bed as he had before.

“I’m sharing with Makoto, you know!”

“Yes, we all know...” came Makoto’s tired reply, “please give it a rest you two.” She was also holding her ear as Ann had shouted directly next to it.

“I agree with Makoto,” Yusuke added from the other bed, “you should appreciate the change of perspective sleeping on the floor is giving you more. I myself have slept on the floor quite a number of times when I was working on a project and I always woke up with new inspiration.”

“That’s not exactly what I meant...,” Makoto mumbled, she was at her wits end from her lack of sleep the last days – thinking about what to do about Haru paired with her busy schedule had taken a lot out of her. Ryuji’s angry shout easily drowned out her words: “Then switch with me and sleep on the floor yourself, if you like it so much!”

“No, thank you, I am content where I am,” the artist answered completely unaffected. Ryuji just growled in frustration. Silence returned but they were all waiting for the other shoe to drop and start the conversation again. Silently, Ann swore to herself that next time she would slap Ryuji, even if it meant leaving the bed.

This time Yusuke’s voice could be heard softly, “it’s been a while since I had a sleepover like this. ...when there were still other students living with Sensei -with Madarame, we sometimes all slept together on the floor of the atelier. But as more and more students left, we stopped.”

“Yusuke...” Ann whispered sadly but the boy said up in bed and shook his head with a smile. “It’s funny how I had forgotten about this, even though I still treasure those moments. I will treasure this night of bonding with all of you as well.”

“Dude, that’s way too formal! And mushy!” Ryuji complained again, this time teasingly lightening the mood.

Yusuke was fast to counter as he started looking through his bag: “I disagree, in my experience every good sleepover involves bonding though discussion of art and honesty.” He pulled something out of his bag, it was cracking loudly with every movement, “also, snacks are a must.”

A loud and excited “oooh!” came from Ann as she too sat up, well, more like jumped into a sitting position with a lot of sudden energy, “I say we skip the discussion about art and get right to the honesty part, so time to came clean, guys: what kind of people do you like?”

“Huh?” was the surprised reaction of both Makoto and Ryuji while Yusuke apparently agreed to this kind of conversation as a means of bonding. Ryuji was Ann’s first target and he said something about a good personality but the blond girl quickly asked a question about deciding between two girls with equally good personalities. Ryuji decided on the “one with the hotter bod’” and Ann smiled in victory that she got him to admit the truth. “That ain’t fair!” Ryuji protested and turned to Yusuke, “what about you, Yusuke? I bet it has to someone who looks beautiful!”

“In a sense, yes, I wish for someone with a beautiful aura of passion and sincerity. Someone strong yet gently, someone I wish to draw for the rest of my life.”

“Wow, that sounds deep, I guess we should have expected Yusuke to be a romantic!” Ann grinned happily and turned to her next victim, “Stop pretending to be asleep, Akira, and spill the beans. What kind of girl is your type?”

“I don’t have a girl type,” Akira spoke up for the first time since they had laid down. Makoto made a small noise of surprise but again Ryuji was always the fastest to react: “You totally dodged the question! -Well, whatever, we answered honestly. It’s your turn next. So, what kind of guys do you girls like?”

“Sure!” Ann grinned happily, “so, Makoto, you’re up first!” The brunette was suddenly glad that it was dark as her face burned, she was surely blushing. “M-me?” she even stuttered out. “Uh-huh,” Ann nodded happily and Ryuji made an excited noise.

Makoto took a calming breath, “S-someone I can trust, I suppose. Someone I can be myself around and learn new things with.” Suddenly, Ann was far too close to her, she looked ready to jump up and down. “You’re talking about someone, I can tell,” she tried to whisper but it was clearly far too loud, “you’ve got to tell me when these guys aren’t around!”

“What?! No fair, now we wanna know!”

“I agree with Ryuji, leaving such a question unanswered would be most cruel. Though I have to admit that a certain kind of mystery is quite nice.”

“So you wanna know or not? Make up your mind! -right, Akira? Say something!”

“Something.”

As if on cue everyone groaned loudly. “We should have expected that,” Ann was the one that put all their thoughts into words. Perhaps the worst part was how they could all imagine their leader answering with a completely straight face.

On the couch Akira smirked to himself as his friends fell silent.

“...urg, this is still the worst, why am I the only one stuck on the floor?” Ryuji signed in defeat as he was trying to get comfortable on the hard floor. On the bed by the window, Yusuke could be heard putting away his snacks and shifting around a lot. He stood up.

...and very specifically positioned his blanket on the ground before laying down. Ryuji was stunned into silence as Akira too stood up and threw his pillow down. “You better shut up now and let us sleep,” Ann warned as she gave up her spot on the bed. Makoto just smiled as she gathered her things, “I suppose it can’t be helped.”

Together the odd group laid on the ground. Ryuji wanted to complain that it was crowded now but it was kinda nice ...and Ann would slap h:im. This was still a total waste of the beds, though, his friends were totally weird. Ryuji quickly drifted off to sleep.

“That was certainly fast,” whispered Makoto into the silence, her eyes were growing heavy as well. Ann seemed to have fallen asleep, too. “...you know, I’ve been wondering what happened to your roommate, Akira,” she asked but as she turned around, he was already sleeping soundly. Well, Mishima would be fine.

\--

Mishima was, in fact, not fine ...but...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The disclaimer for the whole story: I don't own Persona 5, its characters, its lines, etc., the usual stuff.  
> This is important because I worked in and will continue working in lines from the game. Mostly, the lines at the beginnings of conversations will sound familiar because of that.  
> But naturally, we're going off script!
> 
> Just a warning: I meant what I wrote in the tags - everyone will have their moment (because I love them all). So please be aware that my writing is and will be all over the place.


	2. Chapter 2

9/10 – Saturday

The last few days Haru hadn’t managed to catch her breath and relax once. And it wasn’t because of all the meetings she had to attend as a chaperone, no, her nerves laid blank from excitement and nervousness. (What if the others decided not to talk to her after all? Or if they didn’t believe or trust her?)

So Haru did her best to keep busy and to be prepared. The first thing she had brought on Hawaii had been a simple black journal, as she had seen Akira-kun use, and from then on she had spent every little free second writing everything she remembered down:

Everything that happened to them up to December 24th, details about Sae Nijima’s and Masayoshi Shido’s palaces. And Mementos. Or she tried as best as she could, sometimes her memories of the public’s palace were blurry and she couldn’t make sense of the few words she was hearing, then suddenly the Holy Grail before them, Mementos and the real world becoming one ...and disappearing because no one believed in them anymore -this part she remembered far too vividly, Haru swallowed and pushed on- and finally she remembered long blond hair and a girl’s voice. After that she was suddenly standing in their living room with her father talking to her. She just couldn’t remember anything else.

...so instead, she wrote about her friends. Little things like Ann’s love for sweets, Makoto’s love for everything related to Buchi, Ryuji’s favourite ramen place, Mona’s wish to stay with everyone, but feeling useless, Yusuke’s inability to handle money well, Futaba’s funny way of talking that Haru didn’t always understand and took care to look up later, Akira’s silent but rebellious manner.

She didn’t want to forget a single thing about them.

Finally, but still too soon, the day came that Mako-chan knocked on the door to her hotel room. Haru nearly had a heart attack when seeing Akira logging around behind the brunette in a relaxed pose. His eyes were an intense contrast to this, they were clear and alert.

“Hello, Haru-san,” Mako-chan greeted normally, her gaze strayed to Haru’s roommate who had been getting ready for a date for the past hour, “would you like to eat with us?”

\--

The walk to the restaurant was silent. Haru kept glancing down nervously at her phone, Makoto was watching the other girl for any foul play or trap and Akira was the silent type anyway. The only thing he had said when prompted to start the mission had been a simple “I’m hungry.” and then walked off in the direction of Haru’s room. (Everyone else felt like literally face palming, a feeling that they had far too often.)

Soon they arrived at their destination, Haru said nothing as they entered Big Bang Burger. The others were already there, seated around a table near the corner, guarding a free table next to them furiously with angry looks – Ryuji was doing the best job while Yusuke’s version of a threatening pose was just so over the top it was ridiculous, Ann just looked awkward. Makoto was just glad that they hadn’t caused any incidents yet.

With purpose Makoto walked to the free table that was just close enough that the others would be able to listen in on their conversation. Behind her, Haru faltered. She was looking directly at the table with Ann, Ryuji and Yusuke. She waved at them.

Ann let out a shocked noise and Makoto wanted to join her. This meant that Haru, a stranger, likely knew the identity of all Phantom Thieves. It didn’t help that the three thieves were sitting as if made of stone because they were being waved at.

Akira stepped forward and waved at them just once. Hesitantly, the occupants of the table waved back now. “Let’s go,” he said to Haru and nodded towards the thankfully still empty table. Again he waved at the other three, this time with purpose as he wordlessly told them to change tables. They all followed his lead and set down at the corner table.

A waitress walked over almost immediately (she was eyeing the waiting trio with suspicion) and Ann ordered for all of them in English as if she had done so a thousand times. Had they ever been to Big Bang Burger together before yesterday? ...They must have been, Makoto had probably just forgotten the details.

During the whole ordering process, Akira casually looked at his phone and slipped it on the table in just the right angle for Futaba and Morgana to pick up pictures of Haru. “Aloha,” he said.

In return Haru Okumura’s smile was blinding. “Hello,” she greeted happily, the tension had just left her the moment she had sat down in the circle of her friends and looking at Akira she felt like she could tell them anything, “thank you for agreeing to meet with me.” 

“Right,” it was Makoto’s turn to take over, “you had business with us, the Phantom Thieves, correct?” At Haru’s confirmation, she continued, “well, we are willing to listen, if you answer our questions in return.”

The bushy haired girl just signed in relief and replied with determination, “yes, I understand. I will answer all your questions to the best of my ability.” Makoto on the other hand was a bit irritated at how relaxed the other girl was ...and how she had caught herself letting her guard down several times. It certainly didn’t help that when their drinks arrived Haru, in an attempt to help the waitress, knocked over her own drink and started apologizing wholeheartedly. “Man, what a klutz,” Ryuji whispered to Ann, who sat at the other end of the table, so they all heard him.

Any tension that had been there before was now definitely broken.

“I am terribly sorry,” Haru repeated again after the waitress had cleaned everything up, said woman walked away happily with a generous tip for her trouble. And looking at Haru Makoto had the feeling that she would give another just as generous tip when their food arrived.

“I believe you wanted to talk to us,” Yusuke was the first to bring things back on track. Makoto nodded thankfully at him.

“Yes, I thought a long time about how I am going to explain my situation to you ...but I’m not sure myself what exactly is going on. I suppose the best explanation I have been able to come up with is that I have travelled through time.”

“Travelled through time?! That’s nuts!” Ryuji shouted and naturally other patrons started looking in their direction. Ann quickly kicked him under the table, though it seemed more like some weird reflex as she, too, looked shocked, “...time travel? I find that hard to believe.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t explain it any other way. Please bare with me for the time being,” Haru continued sadly and somehow Ann felt bad, like really bad, not the “oh, you poor stranger”-bad but “I made my friend sad”-bad, she was feeling guilty and disappointed in herself. “...sorry,” she mumbled.

“Anyways,” Makoto took over again, pushing her own doubts aside, “if you really travelled through time, you must have proof.”

Haru didn’t know if she should nod or shake her head, “not directly, but I do know what is going to happen. ...Oh! Right, I actually wrote everything down and made a copy for you.” She pulled out a thin paper binder with little smiling pineapples on it, that she had clearly brought here on Hawaii, inside were several pages of paper written in a neat handwriting. “I want you to have this. I tried to put everything down, but if something is unclear or if I have forgotten something, please ask me anytime. ...Oh!” Haru exclaimed again, this time she pulled out her phone, “please, let me give you my contact information.”

“...this is not how things usually go when someone figures out our identity,” Ann couldn’t help but mention as Akira saved Haru’s number and send her a quick text like everything was totally normal. Makoto was more worried that there was a way how those things normally went – just how many people knew of their identities as the Phantom Thieves? She could just hear Morgana screaming that they weren’t careful enough. What would the cat-like thief say right now? “Are you really just going to believe that?” That sounded about right.

And Makoto wouldn’t either, not without proof. She pulled the offered binder towards her and opened the first page. ...and felt like throwing up. “...What is this?” she asked without meaning to, “you are saying that Principal Kobayakawa is going to die tomorrow because of a mental shutdown? And that a calling card will be found in his office?”

“WHAT?!” Ryuji shouted and pulled the piece of paper to himself, on each side of him, Yusuke and Akira read over his shoulder. “It is ...impossible,” murmured Yusuke as Ryuji cursed quietly. Akira wordlessly passed the information on to Ann.

“...I’m sorry,” Haru spoke up sadly, “I couldn’t save him.” If only she had remembered his death sooner, maybe she could have stopped Akechi somehow. But instead she had blindly flown to Hawaii, not thinking of what was to come.

“This is crazy,” Ann said shocked. And that had only been the first thing that was supposed to happen, “the mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns are really being caused in the metaverse? Who would do such a thing?”

Haru shifted uncomfortably, thinking about Goro Akechi was something she had avoided as much as possible.

“I have a question,” Makoto cut in, “what colour is your mask in the metaverse?”

Haru blinked at the seemingly sudden change of topic, “it’s black.” Suddenly, everyone was very much alarmed and alert and, finally, Haru remembered what was so significant about a black mask.

“I see,” Makoto continued in a sharp tone, “That changes things. Isn’t it a little too much of a coincidence that the daughter of Kunikazu Okumura, the CEO of Okumura Foods and who is simultaneously the one person to benefit the most from all the mental incidents, has a black mask? And now is this black masked person is warning us about a future mental shutdown.” The third year took a small but deep breath and her voice dropped, “Time travel? I don’t believe that. It is much more likely, that you yourself caused the mental shutdown and now want to present it to us as proof of your future knowledge.”

The whole table was silent, the noise from the restaurant suddenly seemed to scream at them – especially at Haru who had forgotten how to breath. Makoto herself also seemed to have trouble breathing as she tried to gasp for air as inconspicuously as possible. Somehow, her head was spinning and her heart heavy. She had just done something cruel. The disgust for herself made her want to puke.

Yusuke was the first one to speak up uncertainly: “...are you certain?”

“No!” Makoto wanted to scream on top her lungs, she wanted to stamp her feet and punch the table. Instead, she took one more deep breath and forced out: “This question needs to be answered: Haru Okumura, tell us the truth, are you behind the mental shutdown incidents?”

“No...” Haru choked out first, and repeated herself before finally looking at each of her friends once and she understood that they were listening. “No,” she repeated once again with confidence, “I am not. I am a member of the Phantom Thieves, I fight to help the weak and to make sure that there are no more victims of corrupted adults. I take great pride in that.”

“I believe her.”

Once again, as one they looked to Akira, who had spoken up at last. “I trust her,” he added and picked up the pineapple binder, the way he let it fall shut felt ominously final. ...and then he stretched lazily and the whole effect was gone. Akira had the nerve to smirk at them shortly.

Their leader was far too dramatic, even outside the metaverse.

“We’ll all read this and get back together,” he promised. And as if nothing happened, he also grabbed his far too big burger and looked just so ready to leave that all of Phantom Thieves followed him, no questions asked. Haru fell in step with them unconsciously, into a space between Makoto and Ann that just looked like it had been left specially for her.

The walk back was just as silent as the way there had been.

\--

“Evening,” Mishima greeted Akira happily, as the later entered his own hotel room together with Yusuke and Ryuji. Upon seeing the two others Mishima’s gaze narrowed, “you are not kicking me out again, are you?”

“Oh, right, sorry, about that,” Ryuji actually felt bad about that. They hadn’t thought that their meeting from the day before would go on that long and by the time they had finished it had already been way past curfew and they had all just decided to play it safe and have a sleepover.

“We’re sorry,” Akira added as he set down on his bed, he paused a moment – probably for dramatic effect or something, but everyone who knew the leader of the Phantom Thieves a little better knew to fear those pauses – “Where did you sleep?”

And suddenly Mishima was filled with pride and rushed to tell his story, “you won’t believe this, but at first I was feeling really bad – I drank the tap water, but I learned my lesson now – and I was struggling not to throw up while wandering the hallways when I met a girl! She took me to the infirmary, we got talking and she stayed with me the whole time. She’s also a fan of the Phantom Thieves!”

“A fan of the Phantom Thieves, huh? Wanna introduce me to her?” Ryuji smirked hopefully. Next to him, Yusuke just shook his head. “No way,” Mishima answered so fast as if he had seen the question coming – well, he probably had.

The blonde’s smirk fell for a moment before it returned with a different kind of feeling to it, “ohhh, I see. There’s no girl, you were just tryin’ to impress us. Almost got me, too.”

“Truly?” Yusuke cut in, “I believe he is telling the truth, his aura is certainly much lighter compared yesterday evening. He must have seen something beautiful,” suddenly he jumped up and started gesturing wildly, but graciously, “Hach, the discovery of new things can be wondrous and terrifying – the duality in such a simple thing is fascinating!” He stopped in an awkward pose. Quietly, but looking very satisfied, he let his arms fall and turned to the other three males, “if you’d excuse me, the muses of art are calling me. Good night.”

Just like that he was out of the door.

“...I just don’t get him sometimes,” Ryuji said and scratched the back of his head, “Welp, I’m used to it by now. How about you?”

“The muses are with me.”

Mishima snorted loudly while another groan escaped the blonde and he let his whole upper body hang forward in exhaustion, “You really gotta stop saying shit like this with a straight face.” He stood up, with a lot of difficulty, it looked utterly exhausting, “I’m beat. We leave tomorrow, right? I ain’t looking forward to another eight hour plane ride. ‘night.” Dragging his whole body along, Ryuji left.

“You guys look exhausted, did something happen?” Mishima asked as soon as they were alone. Akira played with the front of his frizzy hair (as Morgana liked to describe it), not wanting to lie, he answered, “donno yet, we’ll see.”

“Alright, but I’m here, if you need help ...and I’m planning on learning a few new tricks soon, so you can count on me.”

\--

9/11 – Sunday

“Hey Futaba, have you seen the cat?” Sojiro Sakura asked his daughter from the kitchen of Leblanc. A full bowl of cat food stood at his feet, untouched and no cat was in sight.

“Mona’s out, he’ll be back in the evening, no worries,” the redhead called from her place in the booth. Well, Sojiro did worry. Seeing that Futaba had started acting weird this morning. She was up and about far too early for her ...and in Leblanc, a public place, no less. And neither Akira nor Morgana were there.

Also she was lazing around in a booth, not by the bar -as near as possible to Sojiro or Akira. She was facing in the direction of the bar, but it likely had more to do with not wanting anyone to read over her shoulder what she was doing on her phone.

“What are you even doing?” Sojiro asked, his voice grumpy and not worried at all. Futaba didn’t even look up, so he must have nailed it. “The usual stuff,” was the answer. Well, whatever that meant. Aside from the fact that it was a secret from Sojiro. He just hoped that it wasn’t anything illegal and/or dangerous. He better watch out for any shady business.

He really didn’t need two kids on probation.

\--

In Kasumigaseki, Principal Kobayakawa of Shujin Academy was crossing the road. With heavy feet and heavier lungs, he was slowly heading towards the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Suddenly, he stopped in the middle of the road, his eyes rolled into the back of his head but he remained standing. Even as the light turned red, he remained there, on the road in the shadow of the surrounding buildings.

The traffic light for the cars turned green. Right in front of the line of vehicles was a truck turning right into the street where the principal was still standing. It was far too late by the time the driver saw the lone man standing there. The principal died on impact.

\--

9/12 – Monday

With a Hawaiian flower lei around his neck, Akira walked into Leblanc dead tired from the eight hours in a plane. Sojiro’s cheerful (well, for Sojiro) greeting helped a bit: “Yo, welcome back. You get tanned a bit?”

Futaba joined in: “How was Hawaii?” Still sitting in the booth, Morgana was being unusually ...cuddly as well, as he allowed Futaba to sit him on her lap and let her pet him from time to time.

“Aloha!” Akira greeted back.

“He’s been influenced!” Futaba gasped, clearly fake. Something was weighing on her mind, if Akira had to guess, he would bet on the information from Haru being the cause. He himself hadn’t read it yet, it was too dangerous to read on the plane ...and right now he could barely keep his eyes open. He nearly missed what Morgana said next: “Now that you’re back, we can finally deal with this situation involving Haru for real.”

Akira nodded at him, but a loud TV report cut him off before he could say anything. While he had been out of the country, Phantom Thief themed merchandise had apparently become popular. Mona turned around, “there’s that, too.”

“Right,” Futaba added, “The Phantom Thieves are crazy popular right now – the Phan-site, too! Now 80% believe that the Phantom Thieves are just!”

“What is the world coming to?” Sojiro asked more to himself before turning to his daughter, “I didn’t know that you are a fan, maybe we should start selling some Phantom Thief stuff, too.”

“Phantom Thief curry,” Akira suggested, as he watched the TV out of the corner of his eye. Akechi was on air again. Huh, even after his rapid drop in popularity, he was in all the same shows as before. Weird.

“Uhhh! We could get Inari to draw us a sign and make the decor a little more phantom-y! I like it! Sojiro, get to work, we need a new, extra delicious Phantom Thief curry!”

“...you know that I was just joking, right?”

“Yep,” Futaba smiled and popped the ‘p’ while talking, “but now I hunger – Sojiro, gimme curry!”

“Yeah, yeah,” the cafe owner laughed, “a serving of curry, coming right up. Akira, you want some, too?”

The black haired boy swayed in answer, nearly falling asleep on the spot.

“I’ll take that as a ‘no’. Go get some rest,” Sojiro ordered and Akira nodded, following without protest, “night.”

“Night!” Futaba called after him, but she must have had a lot to say as she immediately had sent him several messages reminding him to read Haru’s binder and that they had a meeting planned tomorrow. Akira just fell asleep as soon as his head hit his pillow.


	3. Chapter 3

9/13 – Tuesday

It was late in the evening when they finally met in Akira’s dusty little room. Sojiro had given them an annoyed look as they had all filled in one by one this late, but he had just told them not to stay too late on a school night. And there must have been something in their expressions or the way they all walked because he told Makoto (who was obviously the most responsible one) they had the ingredients for curry in the fridge and that Akira knew where everything was.

Yet, they had not dared to go downstairs, being up in the attic felt more private, more protected. They really didn’t need anyone overhearing their meeting. Not after what they had read just today. They were all silent, no one quite knew what to say.

“You all read the folder,” the leader of the thieves started the meeting. It was a simple statement, going by everyone’s expressions he could easily tell how shocked they were. Akira himself thought that everything sounded unbelievable ...but, sadly, not unreal.

“Yeah,” Ann answered first, “I can’t really get it all into my head, but it still feels familiar somehow.” Yusuke nodded along next to her, “yes, I know what you mean, I find myself in the actions that were written. If things truly are going to happen as described, I can see us acting this way.”

“For once, I get ya,” Ryuji added, then his voice turned angry, “damn it, I knew there was a reason I didn’t like that Akechi guy!” He punched the table in his anger and frustration.

On the bed, Futaba flinched closer to Akira. “He’s supposed to be the one who killed my mom,” she whispered. As if a switch was flipped, Ryuji immediately quieted down, but his emotions remained just beneath the surface. Even Morgana, sitting in the redhead’s lap, acted like a cat for once and gently nuzzled his head against her arm. She continued: “But ...Haru also wrote of him as a victim.”

“Yes, I can’t imagine what state someone’s mind must be in to develop the ability to turn others psychotic,” Morgana agreed softly. He hadn’t known that such a thing was possible, but it would explain how the psychotic breakdowns were caused, “but one thing is clear: the reason for his actions is Masayoshi Shido.”

“His dad,” Ryuji added in a weird voice. He knew a thing or two about deadbeat dads, but this one really took the cake, “who’s the shitty adult that accused Akira.”

“Shido is the cause of everything,” it was Yusuke who spoke up, “reading what we did, everything seems to fit together like pieces of a puzzle. I am honestly unsure how to feel in light of this.”

“Yes, I know what you mean,” Makoto admitted, “especially the part about us changing my sister’s heart. I have been thinking of the best way to act now, but honestly, I don’t know. I want to believe in Haru, but my mind is going in circles trying to analyse what is true.”

Morgana agreed with her: “We should first decide what we believe is true before we act. Do we believe Haru Okumura’s version or do we believe that she is laying a trap and is actually behind the psychotic incidents herself?”

“I kinda want to believe her, too, but there’s the thing with her mask being black... and Principal Kobayakawa died just like she said, so Makoto’s theory could be right, too. This is hard,” Ann sighed loudly.

“Let’s go over what we know. After that we decide unanimously,” Akira suggested and nodded to Morgana. Futaba had mentioned that he had been on a special mission. With one last nudge at the redhead’s arm, the cat-like thief jumped from her lap to get something from under the bed. A calling card. One addressed to the principal and one they certainly had not sent. “I found this in Kobayakawa’s office, someone is definitely trying to blame us for his death.”

“My sister believes that the Phantom Thieves are involved as well. Yesterday, when she told me about the principal’s death, she said that he seemed like he had a ‘change of heart’. She is investigating us as suspects in the mental shutdown cases, that much is certain.”

“There’s more,” Futaba spoke up, “the things she wrote about her father’s palace matches the data from Makoto’s sis’ laptop. Okumura is the one to profit the most from the mental shutdowns and he’s exploiting his employees.”

“He’s got a palace, too,” it was Ryuji’s turn, “Okumura, Shido and Makoto’s sis, I put their names in the nav and bingo! - they all have palaces, the keywords match too.”

“Our popularity is as crazy as Haru described it, too. At the assembly this morning people weren’t really interested in the principal’s death, but more in whether it was the Phantom Thieves’ doing. Some were even saying that he ‘got what he deserved’,” Ann frowned as she remembered her classmates talking about this situation as it was something to be expected.

“Yes, people seem to have more faith in us than in the adults. On the phan-site there are many demanding a social reform by the Phantom Thieves,” explained Yusuke, no one of them had thought that they would become famous like this. But according to the information, their fall from grace was not far off.

“Akechi is a persona user, in June, he heard Morgana,” Akira confirmed. Ann and Ryuji nodded along, they both remembered the pancake comment. Whether he was behind the incidents or not, he had at least access to the Metaverse. Though it was more likely that he was the culprit, as there was no way for Haru to know about the incriminating pancake comment useless she was telling the truth. Well, none that Akira or any of his friends could think of. And he still had this feeling. It had already been there in their interrogation of Haru on Hawaii, the feeling of trust. The same one he had for all his teammates and friends. He had always felt like he was linked to them, even on their first meeting. (But why had his personae screamed in joy at seeing Akechi? There was a bond between them, too.)

“I take it, we are all ready to make our decision now?” Morgana asked them all. The other thieves nodded and one by one, they made their choice. They decided unanimously as always – they would believe in Haru.

“Good, we will stand by this decision,” Morgana looked satisfied with the result, “now, we can formulate a plan of attack.”

Makoto interjected before they could get any further, “I suggest that we meet up at a later time. It’s getting late, we should get going before we miss the last train. And,” she smiled, “we should invite Haru as well.”

“Alright, a new team member!” the male blond thief cheered. Morgana rolled his eyes as best as a cat could (which was pretty damn well, apparently): “You’re just excited that it’s a girl.”

“And what’s wrong with that? She’s pretty cute, no shame in admittin’ that,” Ryuji shrugged. Yusuke actually agreed to this, from an artistic point of view naturally, while Ann was quick to point out Ryuji’s chances of actually getting a date with their soon-to-be member. Makoto was trying to calm them down while adding her own arguments and even Futaba cracked a smile and teased Yusuke.

Akira’s friends were the best.

\--

“On your feet, Inmate,” Justine’s soft but sure voice woke Akira. Though he still wasn’t really sure whether he was awake or dreaming or just something in between. Whatever that was. The calm warden continued speaking while he got up as usual: “Our Master has an important matter to discuss with you. Heed his words well.”

“It seems that something curious has happened in your life. A girl claiming to know the future has approached you and those closest to you. She has disclosed many secrets to you, even about the other who wanders the Metaverse,” Igor uncrossed his legs and leaned forward, just a bit closer to Akira’s cell, “and you have chosen to believe her words.”

Through the bars, Akira just stared at the long-nosed man for a moment. He had been wondering when Igor would summon him about this, the master of the Velvet Room always did when something important happened. ...but he never wanted to answer any of Akira’s questions. “Is it true?” the prisoner asked anyways because the man never continued until he did.

Igor chuckled, “have you not already decided that it is the truth?” To Akira’s right, Caroline twisted nervously. Justine, sensing her twin’s nervousness, hesitantly spoke up: “Master, is such a thing as time travel truly possible?”

“There are many phenomena that even we, the residents of this Velvet Room, do not know about,” was the master’s answer. (If you asked Akira, it was typical of him). Justine bit her lip in thought, she answered with a well-behaved “yes, Master” and fell quiet. Caroline twisted restlessly again.

Igor eyed them for a long moment, before his wide eyes turned to Akira again, “regardless, you have made your choice. I truly look forward to seeing how this will change the approach you take towards your rehabilitation. Proceed with caution, otherwise you may be unable to prevent the coming ruin. ...We shall meet again.”

“Time’s up, Inmate!” Caroline spoke up this time, her sense of duty leading her, “Hurry up and return to your world!” Right after the familiar ringing of a bell sounded. Akira had been kicked out of the Velvet Room once again. The usual stuff.

\--

9/14 – Wednesday

Haru stood near the stairs on the school roof. It had started to rain shortly before the end of classes and now she was here seeking protection from the water. She was gazing at her beloved soil and her small plants just a few feet away. It looked like she wouldn’t be able to work in her garden today.

What should she do?

It was a question, she was asking herself quite often lately. She felt useless just waiting for her friends to contact her. Had they read her information already? What did they think of it? What if they didn’t believe her still? If they still rejected her and thought her capable of those heinous acts?

She felt so helpless. She could only wait for their judgement, with them she had done all she could.

Haru had done her best, she had tried to formulate the overview as neutral as possible, but she was far too emotionally involved to make this possible. Sometimes she was sure that her information contradicted itself as she was trying to capture all aspects of the events.

She had struggled with writing several parts, but two stood out from the rest: Mementos, because of her lack of memory and understanding, and the case of Goro Akechi, because of her contrary feelings.

She meant what she had said to the defeated Akechi in Shido’s palace: She had no intention of forgiving him for what he did to her father ...but she also sympathized with him. Wanting to get back at people who took from you, that she understood, but Akechi’s way of doing so was wrong.

Still, they had been ready to accept him back into the team, at least to change Shido’s heart with them. But in the end, it never came to that as Akechi sacrificed himself to save them.

Now, he was alive and still planning on killing them. He was serious about it, too, he had proven it by shooting Sae’s cognition of Akira. She wasn’t sure that she could ever forgive that or what happened to her father.

...but her father was alive. He was not a good man, but he was living and breathing. Many things had not happened yet. Was it not unfair of her to judge someone by crimes they have yet to commit?

One thing she knew, those crimes should never happen. Haru would do everything in her power to make sure of that. It may be selfish of her, but first, she wanted to save her father.

“Hi.”

The sudden voice startled her and she jumped around to see Akira standing in the doorway behind her. Also Haru could hear Ann and Ryuji arguing on the stairs. Mona-chan was looking out of his usual place in Akira’s bag and over his shoulder and Makoto was standing next to their leader. “Hello, everyone,” she greeted back, as she caught her breath, “how can I help you?”

“We’re having a meeting at LeBlanc today and we were hoping you could join us,” Makoto explained and pushed that one stubborn strand of hair back behind her ear. Haru’s heart soared with newfound hope, “yes, thank you!”

\--

“As you may have guessed, we invited you here today because we believe in your version of events,” Makoto said with a smile as they sat in the attic once again. Around Haru the others were smiling at her as well ...and the next moment, tears were falling from her eyes.

“Oh shit, dude, we made her cry! Do something!” Ryuji frantically whispered to Akira. The blonde wasn’t good with crying people. But Haru shook her head, “n-no, I’m alright. I’m just so relieved,” she cried, but she couldn’t keep a smile off her face, “the tears just won’t stop. I’m sorry, everyone.”

“No, you don’t need to apologize,” Ann spoke up with a guilty look on her face, “actually, we’re sorry, we thought you did all that terrible stuff. We are really sorry about that.”

“No, please, don’t be. It was only natural to be suspicious of me.”

“But now we know that we were in the wrong. After seeing your genuine tears of joy, I am even more certain that you have not committed those vile crimes,” Yusuke agreed.

“Thank you, everyone. Thank you so much!”

Haru wanted to thank them in every language in the world and more, but still, it would never express just how grateful and relieved she felt. All the pressure and fear from the last week was suddenly lifted. Her friends had accepted her again. This meant the world to her.

“We should take a small break,” Makoto suggested worried, but again the bushy haired girl shook her head, “no, I’m alright, just very happy,” she wiped her tears away with her own handkerchief, “I also have a request for the Phantom Thieves: Please, help me save my father.”

“So you want us to change his heart, or what?” Ryuji was the first one to ask. But Ann was quick to correct him: “No, you moron! She means to save his life, right?”

“Yes, I wish to save his life. ...but my father is no longer a good person, he is hurting many people for his own success and I can no longer avert my eyes from his crimes. I sincerely wish for a change of heart in my father, but I am unsure whether that is the best course of action to save his life as well.”

“I get what you mean, as soon as we sent the calling card, it would be like a signal to try and kill your father,” Futaba confirmed, “so how about this? Let’s take down Shido first!”

“Uhh, I like that, it would totally stop Akechi and this Shido guy from getting in our way!” Ryuji sounded excited. Around the table several people frowned in thought, Yusuke was the first to ask: “Would it really? We might be able to stop Shido but according to the information, the public would be uninterested in the change of heart and his collaborators would try to hide the truth and continue his work. Akechi would also try to stop us.”

“Would changing Shido’s heart mean nothing? What is wrong with the public?” Ann spat angrily. They had all witnessed it today again as their classmates had talked about the late principal. Even they were acting like it had nothing to do with them.

“The cause for the public’s behaviour seems to lie in Mementos ...but, Haru, your information on that was unusually sparse, do you remember anything else?” Makoto sighed as Haru apologised for her lack of knowledge, “no, it’s alright. I think the cause for your missing memory might lie in Mementos.”

Softly, in a voice normally reserved for his Lady Ann, Morgana spoke, “it could also be the trauma from disappearing, that must have been a terrifying experience. Please, don’t blame yourself, Haru.”

“That is a problem as well,” Makoto continued, “to change the public’s heart and make them interested in the truth, we will have to deal with Mementos at some point.”

“But,” Yusuke said, picking up on their advisor’s chain of thought, “when we steal the public’s treasure, Mementos and the Metaverse will disappear. We won’t be able to change hearts any longer.”

“...yeah,” Ann agreed sadly. She couldn’t really believe that their adventures as the Phantom Thieves were coming to an end, “we have to be even more careful when choosing a target.”

“So, we need to decide whose hearts we are going to steal and how to deal with Mementos,” Morgana summarized.

Ryuji frowned and scratched his head, “isn’t the second one really simple? I mean, we lost cause people didn’t believe in us, right?” His mouth stretched into a smirk, “so we just gotta keep being famous and BAM! We can kick some ass!”

“That’s so simple, it might actually work,” Morgana confirmed after thinking it over a moment, “if the little we know is correct and the public’s believe in us is rooted deeply enough, it would be impossible to erase. Not bad for you, Ryuji.”

“Hey!” said boy protested, but was ignored as everyone was far too used to their bickering. “...could it really be that simple?” asked Haru carefully. She had been there and she remembered vanishing little by little. It felt wrong for it to be this simple. ...if only she could remember more about Mementos.

“I totally get what you mean,” Futaba agreed, “but sometimes simple things work best because no one’s expecting them.” What she didn’t add was that she had taken this knowledge from video games, anime and movies. ...but their lives did seem a bit like one of those at the moment ...just more real.

“We won’t know until we try,” Akira pointed out calmly, he looked at them one by one, “do you still want to risk it?” His eyes shone with determination, it was clear that he himself had already made up his mind. But he would never ask his friends to risk their lives like this, it was their decision to make.

The first to answer was Makoto: “I believe in our justice. And if we have to face some Holy Grail for our justice to prevail, then you can count me in.”

“Hell yeah!” Ryuji shouted, “we’re taking down every shitty adult there is in one go, right? No way I’m gonna chicken out now!”

“I don’t think that is exactly what we would be doing,” mused Yusuke before he smiled, “but we would be reforming society as a whole for the better.”

“Yeah,” Ann was next, “I think we have to do this. Even if it means losing our powers, I want to give courage to everyone before that.”

“Let’s do this,” it was Futaba this time, “now, that I know the truth, I want to avenge my mom but after I think we’ve got to defeat Mementos so that things like ...with my mom don’t go unpunished. ...I won’t go down without a fight.”

“I agree,” Haru spoke up, “if you will allow it, I wish to face the Holy Grail together with you once again. I cannot quietly sit by any longer. Please, let me accompany you.”

Ann laughed, “what are you talking about? Obviously, you’re one of us now, Haru-chan!” Just a second later everyone was agreeing with her, and Haru felt like crying again, especially as Akira told her “welcome back” just like that.

Ryuji had just started suggesting another party, as Morgana brought things back on track, “...everyone wants to take on Mementos then. You can count on me, too. Well, Mementos was my goal from the beginning.”

“Don’t act all high and mighty,” Ryuji complained with an annoyed sigh, “just say you wanna help, stupid cat.”

“I am not a cat!”

“Here they go again,” Futaba commented like she had seen this a thousand times already, even though she had only joined recently. Well, it sure felt like she had known all of them since forever. It showed in how quickly she had trusted them, she had even gone to the beach with them!

“They never stop, do they?” Ann mumbled and Yusuke agreed without any hesitation, he didn’t sound bothered by it in the least. Haru smiled to herself, her friends never changed.

“Right,” Makoto called out, seeing that their leader never stopped these quarrels, “since we have decided to take Mementos’ treasure, we need to choose our next big targets carefully. I take it that changing Shido’s heart is a must?”

Their decision on that was quick and unanimous, they could not let Shido get his way and become prime minister. His crimes needed to be stopped.

“It’s decided then,” Morgana continued, “we also need to save Haru’s father and deal with Akechi.”

“I still think we should go with Futaba’s idea of changing Shido’s heart first, that would totally save Haru’s dad, too,” grinned Ryuji.

“I just told you, we need to be cautious of Akechi!” the cat-like thief countered. Yusuke supported this, “yes, without a doubt, Akechi must be a formidable foe, if he can take on a palace on his own. We should not underestimate him.”

“Besides,” Ann cut in looking at Haru, “I think we should help Haru-chan first. I know, I couldn’t focus on anything else until my father was safe.”

“...I guess, you’re right,” the group’s redhead said slowly, “it was my idea and I really want to change Shido’s heart as soon as possible but ...wanting to save your parent, I get that.”

“Thank you, Ann-chan and Futaba-chan!”

“Alright,” Ryuji agreed, too, “but how are we gonna do that? Should we just not change his heart? Sounds to me, like he’d still be in danger, though.”

“You are right,” Makoto nodded as she pondered how to solve the problem, “they might use the same method as with Principal Kobayakawa – sent a calling card and cause a mental shutdown. With their ability to manipulate the mass media, it would not matter, if there was a confession beforehand. It would certainly make things easier with a genuine change of heart, but our enemies are resourceful.”

“To stop a mental shutdown, we need his palace to disappear. In other words, we need a safe way to change Okumura’s heart,” Futaba summed up.

Morgana nodded, “and for that we need to deal with Akechi,” he side-eyed Ryuji and clearly spoke to him, “who we agreed is too dangerous to just engage in battle.” Ryuji mumbled back that he “got it already.”

“We could do the same as before, just a little sooner,” their leader spoke up, he was twisting the notes in his fingers and everybody knew what he meant. Still, they were shocked at what he was suggesting. Akira shifted to sit more comfortably as the thieves remained silent. Pointedly, he looked at Futaba, Makoto and Haru, “only, if everyone is alright with this.”

“So, you wish to make Akechi join us...,” Yusuke trailed off and Ann picked up, “to keep an eye on him and then...” she, too, trailed off as she looked to Makoto who remained silent.

“And then,” Ryuji picked up instead, “after we stole Okumaru’s treasure, you wanna go into Makoto’s sis’ palace to get caught? And play dead?”

Akira simply nodded, still keeping an eye on the three female thieves for whom this operation would be the most difficult: Futaba, because they would be traveling with her mother’s murderer. Makoto, because they would be putting her sister in danger and looking at her distorted desires. And finally Haru, because her father’s life was on the line and, again, Akechi was in a way her father’s murderer.

“Well, it did work once,” Morgana confirmed uncertainly, as he had picked up on the mood of the three thieves. Haru looked up first. “Yes,” she said slowly, “yes, it did work and I know everyone would make it work again.” She swallowed her hateful thoughts about Akechi and Shido, her father was alive and this was a way to save him, “if Mako-chan and Futaba-chan approve of this plan, I have no objections as well.”

A heavy silence filled the room as everyone looked to the two female thieves while pretending not to in a failed attempt to not pressure them more. Haru looked ready to apologise when Akira spoke up again, “you don’t need to decide today.”

“That’s right!” Ann agreed as cheerful as she could, “we all don’t need to! We should all think about this some more.”

“Yes, I believe that would be best,” Haru added and still apologised, “I am sorry, Mako-chan and Futaba-chan. I am sure there is another way.” Even their leader nodded along.

“How about we sleep on this and continue this conversation tomorrow? A good night’s rest is known to work wonders,” suggested Yusuke kindly. But at the mention of tomorrow the two became tense again.

“Tomorrow is too soon,” Morgana decided for them, “how about we say in three days? We can all think of another plan in that time.” He waited for a moment and even got a hesitant nod from Makoto, “hmm, no one seems to disagree. This means we will meet again on the 17th.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hatefully call this the meeting chapter.  
> Because I personally struggle with scenes where many characters are present. But our favourite phantom thieves hold meetings for basicly everything, so I guess it will be a learning experience.


	4. Chapter 4

9/15 – Thursday

“Man, this sucks,” Ryuji said. Or at least that was what Akira translated his muffled words to. The blond was a bit hard to understand seeing that he was draped over Ann’s desk, his arms dangling in the direction of the dark haired teen and Ryuji’s head was lying on the desk itself. He was speaking more to it then to his teammate.

“Show some grace!” Morgana scolded, but only received a loud, unmotivated groan in response. The glasses wearing teen felt sorry for the cat-like thief as they were stuck inside during lunch because of the weather and thus Morgana was stuck under the desk. He vowed to buy the good cat food on his way home (though Mona loved that stuff, he would protest at it being cat food.)

Ryuji groaned again. If Ann were here, she would surely complain about him drooling on her desk, let alone Ryuji moving it so that it was facing Akira’s. But she wasn’t, so his friend just groaned again.

Why were his friends so convinced that Akira was the most dramatic of them?

“Where is Ann anyways?” Ryuji asked into the table. Morgana bristled with anger, “weren’t you listening?! She told all of us that she’s looking for Makoto and Haru!” His anger was just a tad unimpressive with him still being stuck under the desk, the cause of his anger couldn’t even see him.

“Um, guys?” a familiar voice called. Mishima had walked up to them while they were busy. He was eyeing Morgana cautiously. “You know, your cat is pretty loud,” he informed them and nodded in the direction of the classroom in general.

Several students were outright staring while the rest was either trying to be subtle about it or whispering. Nothing new, then. “Let them talk,” Akira answered, but resolved to remind Mona to be quieter, lest he wanted to spend the school time at LeBlanc.

Oh, right, classmates. He had nearly forgotten about that.

Slowly, with a blank face he turned around to the guy sitting behind him: Green Pencil Case Guy (as Akira knew the names of two of his classmates: Ann and Mishima).

Green Pencil Case Guy’s eyes nervously roamed the classroom looking for an escape, not daring to meet Akira’s steady gaze. He let an innocent smile form on his face and asked, “you alright?”

The other guy nodded so fast, it looked like he wanted to shake his head off. With one more innocent look, Akira turned back around. He heard Green Pencil Case Guy quickly standing up and leaving the room. He smirked satisfied.

Three unimpressed stares were directed his way.

“Dude, that was creepy. What did he do to deserve that?” Ryuji asked, his head resting on his arms now. Mishima was the one to explain: “He apparently tried to tell Kawakami-sensei about Morgana under the desk and how Akira was building, uh, stuff in class.” Stuff being lock picks, smoke bombs and the like.

Luckily, Green Pencil Guy had gone to Kawakami who had pretended to have gone blind and deaf to those things (she had still scolded Akira later, though – bombs even smoke bombs were a big no-go in school), but still is was not a topic he wanted to discuss with another teacher ...or Sojiro.

So, as a solution, Akira simply creeped out Green Pencil Case Guy from time to time. He tried not to do it too much, lest it turned into bullying. To counter that he had even lent Green Pencil Case Guy his notes once. They had a weird relationship.

“Poor guy,” commented Ryuji in the end but he didn’t look like he was going to do something about it and turned to Mishima, “so, whassup?”

The shorter boy turned excited at once, “everyone is talking about the Phantom Thieves and their next move! So, I wanted to ask what you think. Are they really going after Okumura?” Mishima was good with the roundabout way of talking.

Ryuji not so much as he started his sentence with a “we” but he quickly caught himself and answered a simple “donno.” Not bad. Akira nodded as Ryuji let his head fall to the desk again. “It’s freaking weird,” he mumbled into it. Their thievery was the cause of Ryuji’s unmotivated behaviour.

When asked, the blond explained about having a weird gut feeling.

Mishima frowned, “did something happen?”

Akira played with the ends of his fringe as he thought about how to answer that. Oh well, he shrugged. “Nah,” he answered relaxed, “but something big might happen. Donno when.”

The blue-haired teen obviously didn’t fully believe that but he seemed to understand something as he smiled and promised: “Alright, I’ll keep an extra close eye on the Phan-Side.” After that Mishima left.

With great difficulty Ryuji separated his face from the table top and spoke up, “now, we’ve got Mishima actin’ all weird, too.” Mona snorted (and Akira wondered what this sounded like to normal people), “look who’s talking.”

It was a sign of just how different the blond teen was acting as he sighed calmly, “donno, it’s just...” He made a gesture with his hand that was meant to explain something. Luckily, Akira understood that Ryuji hadn’t figured out the problem yet and was at a loss for words.

“Just what?” Mona hadn’t understood, but it wasn’t his fault that he was unable to see the meaningful hand gesture. His schoolmate focused in on Akira’s desk like he was trying to see straight through the wood to Mona.

Ryuji must have failed and given up, as he actually stood up and walked around to stand next to Akira. “Say, haven’t you been acting totally weird lately?” he addressed Morgana.

Who was quick to counter, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re the weird one, Ryuji!” But they wouldn’t be Morgana and Ryuji, if they didn’t start arguing about who was the weirder one.

Akira would bet good money on the fact that to his classmates, it was Ryuji for having a disagreement with a cat.

Oh welp, he shrugged and pretended that nothing unusual was going on. (For him it really wasn’t.)

\--

“I apologise for suddenly asking you to come here like this,” Makoto spoke to Haru. They were in the student council room on the third floor, sitting across from each other by the table.

“Oh, please don’t worry,” assured the other third-year, “how can I help you, Mako-chan?” Makoto smiled as she remembered her talk with Ann in this very same room. She had apologised to the blond girl about not noticing Kamoshida’s abuse.

What a déjà-vu. And it was a “real” one, not one of those unexplainable feelings she had been getting quite frequently. “I am very sorry for the way I treated you, Haru,” Makoto finally spoke and bowed while sitting.

“Please, don’t worry about it, I told you that it was only natural to suspect me,” Haru reassured her gently. But Makoto didn’t agree, she had mercilessly questioned and accused her friend even as her hunches protested against it. Her father was right, she should listen to those and not only to her brains and worries.

“Besides,” Haru continued, still incredibly kind, “I know that you were only trying to protect our friends.” Yes, she had been trying to do that. To protect the Phantom Thieves from running into a trap, that was her job as their advisor. A position she was proud of. “But still, I wanted to apologise. I am sorry. I treated you cruelly while you are a truly wonderful person.”

“Mako-chan...” the bushy haired girl whispered the oddly comforting nickname, “I am not angry and there is nothing to apologise for or to forgive. But, thank you for your kind words. I honestly believe that you are a far more wonderful person, Mako-chan, you are unbelievably kind-hearted and strong. I wish to be friends again.”

For a moment, Makoto was speechless. Didn’t Haru know just how kind she was herself? “...yes, I would like to be friends again, too.”

“Perfect!” the light-haired teen elegantly clapped her hand together in joy once, “you can call me ‘Haru-chan’, if you like.”

“Haru-chan, huh?” the brunette tasted the words and she could just feel the satisfied smile on her face, “it feels oddly familiar. I must say, I’m quite fond of it.”

Just then a knock on the door interrupted them followed by Ann opening it without waiting for a reply and sticking her head in. “Sorry for the intrusion!” she called cheerfully and stepped into the room after confirming that only the other two were present.

Makoto and Haru greeted her and immediately after the brunette asked what was wrong. “Oh, it’s nothing, really! I just felt like ditching the guys,” Ann smiled innocently. Her acting had gotten better, but it was obvious that she had an ulterior motive.

Happily, the blonde teen closed the door behind her, pulled a chair around the table and sat down at the head of it, so that the three of them were sitting in a triangle. “Sooo,” she said far too innocently, “I see you’ve made up, right?” She waited for their confirmation. “This is great! Let’s be friends, too, Haru-chan!”

Haru beamed at her, “yes, thank you, Ann-chan!”

Makoto on the other hand was still very suspicious. Rightly so. “Ann, what are you planning?” she asked sharply.

“Nothing, nothing,” the second-year tried to ease her worries (it was not working), “I was just thinking that since we’re all here and all friends, it’s totes the perfect time for some girl talk!”

Makoto would have never thought that the words “girl talk” would cause such fear in her. Oh no, it was obvious that Ann hadn’t forgotten about ...that.

And Haru was not of much help either, “oh, I was not expecting that. But I would love to! I am certain you already have a topic in mind, Ann.” Scratch that, Haru was outright helping the blonde who was very satisfied with the result.

“Well, I do! You see on our trip to Hawaii, we had this sleepover and Makoto here admitted to totally liking someone!” Two expectant gazes fell on said teen. There was no escaping this, was there?

Makoto sighed, “it’s just a small ...crush. Besides, I’ve been turned down recently and I hate to admit it, but I had no chances to begin with.” It still stung though.

Haru and Ann exchanged a look. Makoto couldn’t describe it any other way and she wondered just when they had gained this kind of understanding. Carefully, Haru spoke, “if you don’t mind asking... it was Akira-kun, wasn’t it?” 

Makoto startled. She had been that obvious, hadn’t she?

“It’s alright,” Ann explained troubled, “we’re actually in the same boat, so I know this sucks. I mean Akira was nice about turning me down, but it kinda makes it worse because I couldn’t be angry at him!”

Haru nodded sadly, “I know what you mean. I was turned down as well ...um, or will be turned down? But I have not intention of trying to start a romantic relationship with Akira-kun again... I am sorry, I am confusing.”

Makoto chuckled, “no, not at all. I think we can let that count and say that we are all in the same boat as Ann put it.”

“I donno, if that’s a club you wanna be part of,” Ann mumbled before turning her attention back to the student council president, “how are you holding up?”

Oh, so that had been Ann’s intention all along. Makoto couldn’t keep from smiling, “I am doing quite well. Our friendship has not turned awkward, that is certainly comforting and it somehow helps to know that I will never stand a chance. I think otherwise giving up would have been ...a problem.” After all, she knew her own stubbornness.

Ann looked between them was a conflicted expression, “I think I get what you mean, it’s just... has he actually told you?” Makoto backtracked her words, had she said too much? But Ann had been there in Hawaii, though the others didn’t seem to understand that significance of Akira’s words back then: “I don’t have a girl type.”

A girl type, so there was another type of person that Akira liked. Makoto suspected it was a boy type, but couldn’t be sure. And it was a highly private matter that their leader should discuss with them himself.

But was Ann thinking the same or was Makoto reading too much into it?

“You know,” Ann said uncertainly after the long pause, “I mean, like, how I think that he’s, well, gay.” Not a second later, she let out a giant breath of relief and relaxed, “I finally said it. I mean I know it’s his to tell and all but I need to talk about this! I’m not the only one who thinks so, right? Because he seems so open about it and then he never said anything!”

“I agree with you, I believe that he is gay, too,” Haru was the first to answer as Makoto was still too stunned at the outburst, “I don’t think it’s a secret per say but he never said anything outright.”

“That’s what I mean!” Ann confirmed before her tone saddened, “do you think he doesn’t trust us with this?”

Makoto had to admit that the thought had crossed her mind but didn’t align with her understanding of Akira. “I don’t think that’s the case,” she brought up, “I feel like he doesn’t think a great reveal is necessary. Akira is letting us come to our own conclusions.”

Ann made a sceptical noise, but it was directed at the absent Akira, “he would totally enjoy that, too.”

Yes, their leader did seem to have a ...thing for confusing them and not explaining it afterwards. His ability to say anything and everything with a straight face made it all worse.

“I think Akira-kun doesn’t care about sexuality,” Haru added, “I feel like he will accept me no matter who I love. He has accepted me for who I am and I want to do the same for him.”

“Yeah, me too,” Ann agreed after a moment of thought, “sorry, I was too nosy, I guess. ...and too insecure, too, even though I wanted to become stronger.”

“No, I was thinking it as well,” admitted Haru, “I had this terrible thought that he didn’t trust me after he rejected me but I quickly realised that it was just my own jealousy talking. After that I felt like I could see Akira-kun clearer.”

“And, Ann, your feelings are important as well,” Makoto cut in, “and if we are still bothered by it, we could always ask him. I believe Akira would give us an honest answer.”

But Ann shook her head, “no, talking to you two really helped. Thanks, Makoto and Haru. I think we should do this again.”

Surprisingly, even Makoto found herself looking forward to this as they agreed. It was nice to spend time as normal teenagers and to know that the others shared her feelings. She had really found her place.

\--

Ann was happy and a bit embarrassed as she was walking back to her classroom at the end of lunchtime. She had gone looking for Makoto and Haru to see, if they were alright, hoping to do some normal stuff and get them to be friends – it was obvious that they were worse off than Ann after yesterday’s meeting.

But instead she had let her own fears show again and got taken care of. No, that wasn’t completely right, they took care of each other. Maybe she had gotten a little bit stronger.

And she needed to thank Shiho later. It was after all because of Shiho that she had come up with the idea. Her best friend had told her that while talking about her problems and feelings helped, it was also nice to do normal stuff from time to time. Shiho had said that it gave her hope that things would get better soon.

Ann should totally plan a visit later, maybe even today or tomorrow.

With that idea in mind, the blonde reached the classroom to find Akira alone at his desk. Alone, as in completely alone, like without Morgana. It was so weird. “I’m back, where’s Mona?” she couldn’t keep from asking.

“With Ryuji,” he answered.

Wait, what?

“What?” the word just fell out of her mouth in surprise.

“He abandoned us. I know, I feel betrayed, too.”

“No, that’s-! I mean, what?”

But Akira was unstoppable, “who is going to make sure I go to sleep on time now? Though I like not having a curfew.”

What was he even talking about?!

“No, sorry, I- What are you talking about?” Ann got out and Akira’s deadpan face was really irritating for some reason, “I mean, why is Morgana with Ryuji?”

Her leader shrugged, “they had an argument.” Like that explained anything! ...well, with those two it kind of did, but still just how laidback could one person be? Ryuji and Morgana together in class? That was a disaster waiting to happen!

As if reading her thoughts and deciding to make it worse, Akira added: “Morgana is staying at Ryuji’s tonight.”

Okay, now it was a massive disaster waiting to happen. “Shouldn’t we do something?” Ann asked her classmate while thinking of all the arguments that were waiting to happen, especially with Morgana’s and Ryuji’s strained relationship lately.

But Akira just shook his head with a smile, “let them talk.” At least someone had faith in them. But this someone was their friend who knew all of them best and Ann trusted his judgement. She would follow his lead and let Morgana and Ryuji be.

Ann hoped for the best.

\--

“Don’t shake me so much!”

“Then stay in the bag!”

“No way! Have you seen all the junk in here?!”

“It’s not junk! And you can’t come out!”

“It is!”

“Oh shit, there’s a ticket guy! Stay quiet!”

“Meow!”

...  
...  
...somehow, they made it. They had left the train without Ryuji having to pay the pet fee and Mona had made it out of the bag alive.

Man, how did Akira do this every day? And how little did he have in his bag to fit in Mona? Maybe he had a bigger bag? Arg, who cares? Mona was still shouting at him.

“Stop complain’ already! It’s not like I knew you’d be hitching a ride!” Ryuji shouted back. Luckily, he had stopped in an alleyway so no one thought he had gone crazy. But he was nearly in his neighbourhood and needed to watch out for the old lady living three doors down. That old hag loved gossiping like crazy. And she’d totally snitch on him for bringin’ a cat home, first to his mom and later to their landlord.

His mom would kill him for sure, if that happened.

But first he had another problem. “Fine, fine,” he cut off whatever Mona was saying, “so I gotta go to work. How do you do this normally? Do you just stay in the bag?” With his thumb over his shoulder, he pointed to the convenience store two houses down and across the street.

“You work at a Triple Seven, too?” the cat asked shocked. Ryuji scratched his head. Yeah, obviously he did. It was still new though: during summer vacation Ryuji had walked into the Triple Seven on Central Street in Shibuya ...and ran out like he had seen a ghost when he’d spotted Akira behind the cash register.

Thinking back, that was a stupid reaction and there was no way that he was telling Morgana (or anyone else) about that! But when he had seen their leader, who handled their planning, shopping, infiltration tools and who knows what else, working on top of all that stuff, Ryuji had felt ashamed for doing jack shit himself.

The least he could do was help out his mom. That was what he had wanted to do with a track and field scholarship anyways. So, he had gotten a job at the Triple Seven in his neighbourhood, simple as that.

“Yeah, I gotta help my mom, you know?” was all he told Mona because that story was too embarrassing, “so, how are we gonna do this?”

“Well, is there a good place for me to hide or a window? In the one in Shibuya there’s a window behind the counter, usually Akira opens it a little and I wait outside.”

Wasn’t there a window behind the counter here, too? Yeah, he was pretty sure there was one. “Alright, let’s do this!”

\--

Akira on the other hand had gone straight home and not to rest like he usually did. Instead, he must have given Sojiro a near heart attack when he asked for his house key. As in the key to his house one backstreet further down.

Sojiro had given Akira a hard to describe look. It was a mixture of warning, suspicion, worry and finally pleading. The cafe owner obviously knew that something was going on. In the end, his worry for his daughter had won out and he had tossed his keys at Akira.

Who had wanted to run to Sojiro’s house, but had instead walked to gather his thoughts. Which was pretty useless as he couldn’t even begin to guess what Futaba could be thinking right now.

He knocked on Futaba’s door, “it’s me.”

A crash could be heard inside, followed by a shout of “oh no, my babies!” from Futaba (her action figures had taken a hit) until after a short silence the door opened. “Today’s just not my day,” Futaba mumbled as Akira sat down on the bed.

The redhead herself was sitting in her chair, her computer was on and Akira had no doubt in his mind that she had been hacking again. “You can guess, right?” she said after a moment of silence, “I was gathering intel on Shido and Akechi.”

Going by the bags under her eyes, she must have done this instead of sleeping. But she wasn’t satisfied with the results.

“Shido’s a real tough nut to crack, I had to dig real deep to even find rumours about the guy and they are all anonymous. He’s definitely got a hacker on his side that’s cleaning up after him. Shido must be seriously paranoid! I’ll need more time to dig up all his dirty secrets.”

Sometimes Futaba’s hacking powers worried Akira a bit. They sure as hell were practical ...but then he remembered that she had bugged his phone. (Was she reading all his text messages?)

But now wasn’t the time as Futaba’s mood turned sour again. “I did find some info on Akechi though,” she made a noise of distaste, “after I dug through all the fan stuff. He had a lot of hardcore fans, but now is basically just hate.”

Akira remained silent. Futaba just needed some time to gather her thoughts, she would talk when she was ready.

And she did, “do you remember how Akechi came to LeBlanc the first time? He was talking about how his mom died and he was passed around from foster home to foster home... Even though I didn’t like him, back then, I thought that we were alike. ...and we are. That story is actually true.”

She turned around to her computer and pulled up a picture. “It’s a scan of a police report,” she explained, “the one dealing with his mother’s suicide. His mom was single, too, but he didn’t have any relatives and was put in an orphanage and later in several foster homes.”

Futaba rolled away from the desk on her chair and gestures for Akira to read the police report.

His stomach dropped and he felt nauseous. The report stated that Miss Akechi had committed suicide by hanging herself in her bedroom while her son had been out to primary school. It further stated far to emotionlessly that her son had been the one to find her and that a note had been found. It had apparently explained that Miss Akechi hadn’t been able to continued living in her current living situation. The police even suspected that her status as single with a child out of wedlock had played a critical role in Miss Akechi’s decision to take her own life.

The similarities between this and Futaba’s case were shocking. Akira didn’t know what he was feeling, but he pushed his own thoughts aside to focus on the waiting redhead.

“I asked myself what kind of people killed my mom and know that I know I...,” she stopped again. This time she left the chair to sit next to Akira on the bed, “I hate them. When I learned their names I wanted to avenge my mom on the spot that’s why I suggested going after Shido first. ...And I still want to.”

She fell silent again. Akira still believed that she needed to get this off her chest without him interrupting but he wanted to show her that she was there, so he gently patted her head.

Futaba smiled sadly and closed her eyes as they both simply sat there. “I want revenge for my mom and sometimes I find myself thinking that’s enough no matter how, but then I remember all of you, what you did for me and all those other victims out there, and I know that this isn’t it. It’s not the right way to do this. I want to help you and I want to stop Shido our way. I think, if I didn’t have you and everyone else, I would have turned out like Akechi.”

Akira patted her head one more time before he smiled at her, “we’re here and we’ll change his heart together.”

“Well duh!” Futaba protested, but she was visibly relieved. “Oh!” she suddenly shouted and scrambled off the bed in a hurry and pulled out a piece of paper. “Thank to you listening, I feel like I can totally do this. ...well, probably.”

She held the promise list she had made the last time they met under his nose. They had yet to get started on fulfilling any of the promises written down. Futaba played with the edges of the paper.

“I thought of adding another one,” she explained and even had a pen ready even though she was quite unsure, “I feel like I understand Akechi a little, so one day I wanna ask him about my mom. ...it’s a stupid idea, isn’t it?”

It was a bold idea, but Akira wasn’t the best one to ask when it came to logical decisions. Example: he was on probation and just days after arriving in Tokyo he had become the leader of a vigilante organisation. Enough said.

And Akira was all for stupidly bold ideas, if they helped Futaba with her mother’s death. “Go for it,” he told her, “we can go together.”

Futaba swallowed, looked at the list, back up at Akira and finally down at the list again before she added the promise shaky handwriting. “There, I added it!” she proudly presented the list again.

But Futaba wouldn’t be herself, if she didn’t jump from one point to another and she quickly turned serious again, “but first I have a quest for you!”

\--

Sojiro inwardly breathed a sigh of relief when Akira entered the cafe in the evening. With Futaba at his side. She was chatting at him about some anime or game or something.

Sojiro just had to smile every time he saw her being a normal teenager.

“Sojiro, I need curry, quickly!” she greeted him and he couldn’t help but chuckle, “what’s the hurry?”

His daughter let out a giant yawn in response and pouted angrily, “I wanna sleep but Akira said I gotta eat first and then he started describing just how delicious your curry is, so now I’m hungry, too! Sojiro, Akira’s so mean!”

A laugh just escaped Sojiro at this. “Slow down, Futaba, I’ll make you some curry right away.” He also nodded at Akira in thanks for watching out for Futaba. He was even impressed that Akira had gotten the redhead to listen.

Said teen nodded back before tossing his house keys back to him.

“OMG!” Futaba gasped, “Sojiro gave you his house keys?! Why didn’t you say so?! We could have totally made a copy of the backdoor key for me!”

“And have you sneaking out? I think not,” Sojiro was quick to kill that idea at the root. Futaba pouted again and called Akira a traitor. The boy just smirked at her.

“Anyway, you two,” Sojiro cut in before they started quarrelling like siblings (and wasn’t that a scary thought?), “where’s the cat?”

\--

It was evening by the time Morgana and Ryuji arrived at Ryuji’s flat after his shift. To his displeasure, Morgana had to hide in the bag again to get into the flat unseen but they had gotten into Ryuji’s room without his mother finding out.

Predictably, the room was a mess.

At least it was only non-perishable things, such as clothes, school books carelessly thrown about, games and, certainly a new addition to the mess, handicraft tools and materials. Morgana could clearly see several bright red, failed calling cards in one corner.

Ryuji needed to be more careful about their secret identity...

“Urg, I’m beat!” the blond groaned as he gracelessly collapsed on top of the bed. The cat-like thief couldn’t be too angry at him for that, Ryuji may not have been the fastest learner at work but he had put his back into it. He had even managed not to snap at a practically unfriendly (to put it nicely) costumer, instead he had bottled it up until he was in the break room and cursed loudly in anger.

Still...

“You should really clean your room,” Morgana lectured and gestured to the pile of half finished calling cards, “you can’t leave incriminating materials like that lying around.”

Ryuji sat up so that he was comfortably lazing around on the bed, “man, you sound like Makoto. I’ve got everything under control, I just gotta say that I’m a huge fan or somethin’ like that.”

Completely ignoring the second part, Morgana asked: “Makoto was here?” That seemed ...weird. He couldn’t picture Makoto standing in this room and seeing this mess without any consequences for its owner.

“Huh? Yeah, sure, we always meet here to make the calling card,” Ryuji shrugged, he sounded a bit annoyed thinking about it, “and Makoto always complains about my room, I even started cleanin’ when I know she’s coming over.” Now, that he could imagine.

Suddenly, Ryuji laughed, “Mona, you should’ve seen Yusuke’s face! When he came over the first time, he was totally mad about my room being not artsy enough or something and he started moving my stuff – he was so shocked when Makoto didn’t like it, he just stood there for two minutes. It was kinda creepy.”

Huh, Yusuke as their calling card artist, Ryuji as the ideas man and muscle and Makoto as the advisor for both the card itself but also the safety percussions. Morgana hadn’t known that they had their own little meetings like this, but it was a good mix, it suited them.

Another area where Morgana was useless.

“...well, if Makoto is keeping an eye on things...” he agreed to let it rest. Ryuji was more likely to listen to Makoto than to him.

The blond student suddenly leaned forwards and rudely poked Morgana, several times. “What are you doing?!” said cat-like creature complained and started batting with his paws at the annoying appendages.

He belatedly realised that to anyone else watching it would like an ordinary teenager play fighting with his cat. Thank god that no one was watching.

“Meow! Stop that!” Morgana shouted loudly.

Suddenly, a knock sounded on the door. “Ryu? Is there a cat in your room?” a female voice asked sharply.

“Shit!” Ryuji cursed quietly and rushes to answer, “n-no! I was, uh, watching a video! A cat video!”

Morgana hid under the bed, but not before he turned his best unimpressed look at Ryuji. The teenager’s mom, too, sounded very unimpressed and unconvinced, “uh-huh, sure. Ryu, what did we say about lying to each other?”

There had to be more to this as Ryuji immediately gave in. “We promised not to,” he mumbled, “Mona, come out and Mom, you can come in.” The door opened not a second later, and Miss Sakamoto entered the room.

Morgana hesitantly peeked out from under the bed. His eyes mustered Ryuji’s mother. She didn’t look angry or disappointed at her son, she was waiting patiently with a neutral expression. But there was something about her that screamed “tired”.

Maybe it was her long black hair, that was styled in a beautiful braid. It was obviously well cared for but it’s shine seemed to be lacking something. Morgana couldn’t pinpoint what exactly it was but he just had this feeling. It was another thing he was unable to explain, just like the pull he felt to human treasures.

Still, Miss Sakamoto was a beautiful woman. And Morgana wondered if Ryuji’s natural hair colour was a rich black like hers.

“Come out already,” Ryuji whispered urgently and, finally, Morgana jumped on the bed again. He stared up at Miss Sakamoto and she stared down to him.

She sighed.

And something about it seemed to trigger Ryuji as he started to talk, “This is Morgana, Akira’s cat. He’s only here for one night, Mom, I promise.”

“The infamous cat that your friend takes everywhere?” the mother clarified and sat down next to Morgana. Careful and gentle, she stroked his fur. “Nice to meet you, Morgana.”

Ah, Miss Sakamoto really knew what she was doing. “The pleasure is all mine,” He answered and smugly turned to his friend, “your mother has much more sense than you do, Ryuji!”

The woman chuckled at all the meowing, “he’s a lively one. And clever, just like you said.”

Morgana’s smug grin turned into a shocked expression. Ryuji had called him clever?! And the teenager was blushing, too!

“Mom!” he protested, but didn’t disagree. Quickly, he changed the topic, “so, can he stay? Just for one night! Please?”

Miss Sakamoto looked between her son and Morgana. She really had Ryuji under her thumb because the boy looked like he was sweating buckets as he waited for her verdict.

“Just for one night,” she decided, “and you have to clean up your room. Thoroughly, vacuuming and dusting, too.”

“Urg, Mom!” Ryuji repeated, but he had never stood a chance, so he added, “fine.”

His mother looked very satisfied as she smiled, “good, now, pinkie promise.” Ryuji groaned loudly and all the way complained that he was not a kid, but nevertheless, he hooked his pinkie with hers and promised.

Miss Sakamoto ruffled her son’s hair before she stood up, “go and wash your hands, dinner’s ready. I’ll see, if I can find something for your friend.”

As soon as she had left the room, Morgana spoke, “she’s a good mother.”

“Yeah...” Ryuji agreed and trailed off, like he wanted to say so much more, but was too embarrassed to do just that. Morgana understood that feeling... He-

He found himself being poked again.

“Stop that!” he shouted, “why do you keep doing that?!”

Ryuji shrugged, not because he didn’t know, but because he couldn’t explain it properly, “you were makin’ that weird face again. I told you, you’re totally acting all weird lately.”

There was the statement that had gotten them into this mess. Morgana himself was shocked at his own actions, but somehow their argument during lunch had lead to them wanting to prove who was weirder ...and Akira had not been helping, he had only opened his mouth once to suggest that they needed to be around each other to acquire such proof ...now, here they were spending a whole day together.

In silent understanding, they both totally blamed their leader, but couldn’t muster any anger at him.

“Hey? You in there?” Ryuji’s question pulled Morgana out of his thoughts, he had forgotten to answer.

A bit hurried, Morgana answered his usual protests, “hmpf, your delusions don’t deserve an answer, I am the same brilliant phantom thief as ever!” Only, he wasn’t so sure of that anymore...

“Urg!” his teammate suddenly shouted, “this is going nowhere! Listen, I’m not dumb, I know somethin’ is wrong, so spit it out already, you dumb cat!”

Morgana’s heart beat faster. So even Ryuji had noticed? It was no secret that Akira knew, but they lived together and Akira was the person Morgana trusted the most.

He screamed back the only thing he knew: “I am not a cat!” 

Most likely...

“Cut the crap! And you didn’t say I’m wrong!” Since when had Ryuji been this observant?

Said thief made another angry noise, he looked more frustrated than angry. He wildly scratched his head, it looked like he wanted to pull out all his hair until he finally groaned again and calmed down a little.

“Look, I get it. You have that stupid look on your face. The one I had when I lost my place with the track team,” he explained honestly. He wasn’t really looking at Morgana but at the pile of failed calling cards and his face was red, he was embarrassed.

“I just don’t get ya,” he continued, “I mean, you totally belong with the Phantom Thieves, so you’ve got no reason to make that stupid face!” Morgana just stared at him for a long moment.

There was no way that Ryuji would understand! “You don’t know anything!” he protested.

“Then tell me, dammit! Or tell Akira, he’s good at this stuff!”

How dare he-!

“That’s the problem!” Morgana hissed out, “everyone is good at something, but me! I can’t continue relying on you while I’m useless! Otherwise I will lose the only place I belong!”

He stopped, panting heavily. Oh god, he had said it. And to Ryuji, who had called him out on his uselessness several times, of all people! Why did stupid Ryuji always have to make him so angry?

What should he do now?

Should he run home? No, that wouldn’t work, he couldn’t ride the train by himself without getting stepped on.

Maybe he should just run away for a few days? No, he couldn’t leave his friends alone in the current situation. He may be mostly useless, but he couldn’t let them face this alone. Especially Mementos, something in him bristled at the thought of sending the Phantom Thieves alone into Mementos.

Should he just deny everything he just said? There was no way that Ryuji would believe that. But it could get him some time to come up with a better solution before the blond continued asking unusually deep questions.

Noisily, Ryuji snorted.

Morgana looked at him in distaste. Naturally, he would be grinning and fighting not to laugh at the useless, stupid cat. He had to look away again. It was only natural. ...so why did he feel so nauseous?

“Geez, I think that was the most honest you’ve ever been,” Ryuji said and it sounded strangely light-hearted, “you shoulda just said so from the start.”

Huh?

Morgana looked up at the not gleefully smiling Ryuji, instead his grin oddly comforting as he scratches the back of his neck. He was embarrassed again.

“This isn’t like me, but listen,” he continued, “you’re a part of the team and we abandon nobody, got it? You ain’t useless, but if you feel like it, I donno, just look for somethin’ else to do. But that stuff ain’t important because we’re free, y’know?”

No, Morgana didn’t know. Ryuji really was bad at this, his speech had been all over the place ...but one thing was clear and Morgana got that at least: his vulgar blond teammate cared about him. Enough to tell him those words, that while making little sense to Morgana, were obviously very personal for Ryuji.

“...but, I don’t have any reason to stay with the Phantom Thieves. I don’t have anyone I want to save or get revenge on. I’m not even making progress in regaining my memories. I can’t stay here, I...” Morgana finally admitted.

“Don’t make things so freakin’ complicated,” Ryuji cut in, “you wanna stray, right?”

“YES! I wanna stay with the team forever! And live in LeBlanc’s attic, stay with Akira with his weird hobbies and get cheap cat food from Boss!”

“Dude, that’s totally reason enough.”

\--

Morgana couldn’t sleep. And not just because Ryuji always made a snoring noise when he moved. It was like the blond was doing this on purpose, always moving exactly the moment when Morgana felt just a tiny bit tired and though he could finally sleep.

But he probably wouldn’t have been able to sleep regardless. His mind was still reeling with all that had been said today. He had come clean to Ryuji and been accepted.

Just wanting to stay was reason enough...

Still, Morgana was questioning his sanity and if their talk really happened. He himself had been stunned speechless and in that moment Miss Sakamoto had called them to the dinner table.

Silently, Morgana had listened to mother and son talk about their day and felt strange all over. Stupid Ryuji had been right after all, he was acting weird.

He didn’t know what he had expected after dinner, maybe more questions and speeches and shouting, but instead Ryuji had actually tried to do his schoolwork. Keyword being “tried” as he had given up after half of it.

...and Morgana had been so annoyed with all his complaining over a little schoolwork that he had screamed and shouted and nagged until Ryuji had sat down again and they had worked through it together until the end.

After his teammate had once again collapsed on his bed (he had said his head hurt from all of Morgana’s nagging) and promptly fallen asleep. But not without mumbling a half-asleep thanks to Morgana.

Ryuji was just too carefree, if you asked Morgana. ...but maybe that was part of the being free that he had talked about. Honestly, before today Morgana had thought that he had Ryuji figured out.

But now, he knew he didn’t and while he still didn’t get Ryuji’s speech, Morgana had understood that the blond cared more about the team than he let on. It was his place to belong, too.

He sighed. There he went again, thinking so much. There was no way that he was getting any sleep tonight, so he decided to at least leave the snort-like noises behind and relocate to the small living room.

As he walked to his destination, he noticed that the lights were still on in the kitchen. Miss Sakamoto was sitting at the table, drinking a cup of tea.

Before he could decide whether to notify her of his presence or not, she had already noticed him looking through the open door. “Hello, Morgana,” she greeted and gestured for him to come over.

It would be rude to leave now. Carefully, he jumped up to sit on the chair next to hers and she gently ran her hand though his fur in though. They sat like this for a few moments until she suddenly stopped and asked, “or am I rude in patting you like a normal cat?”

“What?” asked Morgana, his manners completely forgotten in shock. But all Miss Sakamoto heard was a “meow?”.

She sighed tiredly, “I’m just talking to a cat, right? ...but what if I’m not?” She intensely stared at Morgana for a long moment (he actually felt uncomfortable under her gaze), “I can’t believe I’m doing this... so, you’re not a normal cat, right?”

When Morgana didn’t answer, she continued, “just in case you aren’t, please listen to me, Mona-san.” 

How did she know his code name?!

She chuckled, “either I’m crazy or you just tensed up, Mona-san.” Ryuji’s mom paused again, probably once again asking herself just what she was doing, but her mind was made up:

“Please, take care of my son and his friends. I don’t know exactly what it is that you’re doing as the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, but I know it can’t be without danger. I thought about telling Ryu that I know about him being a phantom thief and asking him to stop, but he hasn’t been this happy in a long time. He’s changed for the better, too, that’s why I can’t tell him to stop. ...so, I’d be more at ease, if you’re watching out for Ryu.”

Completely, ruining her heartfelt speech, she added, “I’m just talking to a cat, aren’t I?”

She was definitely Ryuji’s mother. Just how often was she going to say this?

But ignoring her rude comments (however understandable), Morgana could tell that she really cared for Ryuji.

“I’ll watch out for that idiot,” he promised her.

“Alright, let’s do it like this: one meow for ‘yes’ and two for ‘no’. ...is that good?”

“Meow,” Morgana said in answer. Meowing on purpose always felt stupid to him, but there was no other way to communicate and this worried mother deserved answers.

Miss Sakamoto took another moment to realise that Morgana had actually answered her, “great, so you promise to watch out for Ryu, right?”

“Meow,” he confirmed.

“Thank you, Mona-san,” the woman breathed a sigh of relief, “you know, Ryu talks about all of you at dinner. At first was worried when he described that Morgana the cat said or did something so human, so Ryu told me that Morgana is Akira’s cat and Mona is a friend from school. But he still slipped up.”

That sounded like Ryuji, alright. “Meow,” he said to show her that he was listening and she relaxed into her chair.

“You know, apart from Makoto, you sound like the most responsible one in the group, Mona-san. Ryu sounded a little jealous when he mentioned that you’re the only one who Akira listens to. Well, sometimes, because that boy sounds like he listens only to his own heart.”

“Meow.” She got that much right.

“And then there’s Ann. I’m glad that Ryu and her are friends again. I could tell that he was really worried about her and with that Kamoshida-“

And thus Morgana spent the night listening to Ryuji’s mother and occasionally, answered her.

It was nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rank up!! The Hermit Social Link has reached Rank Three! I'm changing her link and I tried writing in the style of a social link, so sorry if it sounds awkward.
> 
> Anyways, am I the only one who thinks that Ryuji in the uniform of the convenience store part-time job would look super awkward because he would be feeling so uncomfortable?


	5. Chapter 5

9/16 – Friday

“Mornin’,” Ryuji called as he spotted Akira at Shibuya Station. Hearing that, Morgana suddenly looked outta the bag over his shoulder. Damn, that cat was movin’ way too much, his shoulder was all stiff because of Mona hitching a ride.

“Good morning!” Mona greeted happily and jumped outta Ryuji’s bag to Akira’s shoulder, “did you miss me, Akira?” The cat was far too happy, had been all morning to be honest. And he had been grinning all smug at Ryuji. That was totally suspicious!

And for some reason, his Mom was in on it, too. They couldn’t even understand each other, but his mom was all happy, too! -not that that was a bad thing, it was freaking awesome to see his mom happy, but still, it was even more suspicious!

Akira speaking cut off his train of thoughts. “Sure, Sojiro and Futaba did, too,” was his serious answer but the effect was ruined as Akira yawned loudly. That guy had never been a morning person but Mona immediately started nagging the poor guy about his curfew. Seriously? Mona set Akira’s curfew?

Nah, wait, he could picture that after yesterday with all the nagging about his schoolwork. 

Welp, they looked happy enough. So Ryuji let out a big yawn of his own (he was so not a morning person either) and they got going. Urg, school.

\--

School, it sometimes felt too normal. Yusuke had not had this feeling for a while. It had surfaced at the beginning of his second trade as a phantom thief. Pretending that everything was normal while also seeing Sensei -Madarame’s most inner thoughts had been ...conflicting, to say the least.

Now, it was like this again, the normalcy was both calming and alarming at once. The first time, Yusuke had hated those mixed feelings, but now he drew a strange sense of satisfaction out of the different aspects human nature offered. Lately, he had been thinking about this duality and other topics.

Yesterday, he had tried to think about time itself and the ripples they had caused in its fabric until now. Would they be able to become waves and turn the tide in their favour?

But while it was certainly an interesting concept whether time was a constant or not, it was not a matter that truly touched his heart and created the irresistible urge in him to paint.

Fathers, that was the topic he was thinking about today. Again, he might add, as he had destroyed several abysmal paintings dedicated to this theme. Perhaps today he would finally overcome his slump in this matter and be able to sort out his feelings.

Yusuke didn’t know where to start, his feelings for his own foster father were even more difficult to comprehend after Kawanabe-san had told him about Sensei taking care of him when he had fallen ill as a child.

It had caused him to remember all the good times he had spent under Sensei’s care – the same memories that he had held onto for so long in order to ignore just how Madarame had changed. Even now, they were a double-edged sword.

Yusuke knew that logically there was no such thing as a perfect father, but he would have liked to know a good father – all those he had seen had been from a safe distance as he was people watching for inspiration. Even when he was younger, he had often felt jealous when observing other children with their families.

And after, he had felt guilty for not treasuring what had been given to him. There were many who were not as fortunate as he was. He could not imagine the difficulties that would have befallen him, had he grown up in foster care. There were many hardships in this world.

But fathers especially seemed to cause problems, if his group of friends was anything to go by.

Yusuke thought about it, but no one in his group of friends had a good relationship with their father. Ryuji had called his father a “deadbeat dad” and the man had thankfully left his wife and child. Futaba didn’t even know who her father was. Ann clearly loved her father, but he was rather absent from her life. Makoto was similar, she loved her father, but the man had passed away. Morgana didn’t remember anything, let alone his father. Yusuke had not heard anything from Akira about his father, but seeing that his parents had sent their son away, the relationship was most likely strained at best. And Haru was the same as Yusuke, her father had changed and chosen to seek fame and money by committing crimes.

He felt a certain kind of kinship with her thanks to this fact.

Well, he supposed, there was also Akechi. His father was a criminal as well. Madarame, Mr. Okumura and Shido. They all thought of their children as nothing more than tools to further their own success. 

How did it come to be this way? And why?

“Kitagawa-kun?” a familiar voice called from next to him. He turned to see Togo-san next to him, she was looking at his canvas. Only now did he notice that his brush had stilled.

He let his gaze rest on the half finished painting, he had used a lot of different shades of blue and his technique was sloppy. Another failure. “Togo-san,” he finally greeted, “how can I help you?”

His classmate shook her head, her eyes roaming over the failure again, “I actually wanted to ask, if you are alright, Kitagawa-kun. Your kingdom seems to be in quite a state of disarray.”

His kingdom, Yusuke had to smile at the term. Hifumi Togo-san had only recently approached him, before she had kept her distance as all his schoolmates, but now he felt that in her case it had not been out of malice or envy. She herself was the same as Yusuke, an oddity to their schoolmates.

Their talks were quite stimulating, they let him see new aspects in his paintings. For example, Togo-san had explained how with the help of visual training, she saw a whole kingdom she ruled over on the Shogi board.

And she saw his canvas as the same, a kingdom for him to create and shape. It was a concept he could understand more and more as she slowly explained the rules and art of Shogi to him.

He gazed upon the failed kingdom again. Disarray. That was a fitting description.

“I was trying to capture the meaning of fathers to myself and what I know about my friends’ fathers, but it is proving to be a difficult undertaking,” he answered finally.

“I see, it is a rather sad kingdom, but,” she reached out her hand and gently caressed the still white patches of the canvas, “I like the white spaces. I know they are unfinished but to me they seem hopeful.”

Softly, she smiled at the painting. Yusuke sensed a deep, personal meaning in her gaze and words.

“May I ask about your understanding of fathers, Togo-san?”

She carefully touched the white one last time before she spoke still looking at the painting, “I can only talk about my own father. He used to be a Shogi player and taught me everything I know, he is the one who let me see the board as my kingdom. Thanks to him I love Shogi. I really admire my father ...but he is ill. One day, he suddenly collapsed and became unable to work. He has caused my mother, who had to give up her dreams to support us, many troubles and worries.”

So Togo-san’s relationship with her father was filled with love, but also with worry about his health and her mother. “I am sorry to hear that,” was all he could answer, but he really appreciated her telling him such personal details and told her so.

“Oh, uh, it’s no problem,” Togo-san spoke embarrassed. Just then, Yusuke saw his old self in her, someone who did not have many people to talk to, people who simply appreciated you for yourself, even with what others dubbed weird quirks.

But now it was different, he had made true friends, sometimes he couldn’t believe how lucky he was and how much had changed. It was especially hard to believe it in school, where nothing had changed even after everything that happened. 

Well, he supposed, some things had changed, as he looked at Togo-san who was still fascinated with his failed piece. “It might be presumptuous of me, but I believe you should keep the painting. I quite like it, the unfinished patches created a hopeful atmosphere as if this kingdom’s story is not finished yet. Something good may yet happen.”

Unfinished...? His relationship with Sensei was unfinished and may change once again?

Yes, that was right, wasn’t it? Madarame may be in jail, but Yusuke could visit him, if he wanted to. But ...but did he want to...?

But either way, the story and the painting were both not at their end. He would not have to make up his mind today. It had been presumptuous of him to think he could untangle human emotions this fast. He still had a lot to learn.

“No, I think I will keep the painting,” he decided, “you have given me many new things to think about. Thank you for that, Togo-san. And it may be some time, but I would like to ask that you tell me your opinion of the finished piece.”

“I would like to very much,” she agreed with a kind smile.

\--

Haru was tending to her garden beds. It was a little sad that most of her hard work had been lost, but she knew more now than the first time around, she should be able to get her beloved soil and coffee plants in much better condition much faster than before. But naturally, it would still take time...

For the first time, this concept was not calming to her, instead it made her uneasy. Because she wanted to make her coffee even better, but she didn’t know if she had the time.

Because she knew what she wanted to do now.

Yesterday, she had come home to her father being actually home. He had been busy and on the phone as usual, but he had greeted her ...and reminded her to be cordial with Sugimura-san, her fiancé that she had somehow completely forgotten about.

She did feel a bit guilty about simply forgetting another person (even if they were a creep) and had been so shocked that no words had left her mouth until her father had already left for work again.

It felt surreal, she had only just gotten out of her engagement, thanks to Akira-kun’s and Takakura-san’s help and now she was back at the start.

Well, not completely, she knew who her allies were now. It felt a bit like she was cheating at life. And this was how she had decided what she wanted to do.

She heard the door to the roof open and as she turned around, she saw the familiar sight of Akira in the doorway. She couldn’t help but smile.

“Hey,” he greeted as he walked up next to her, watching her work with interest.

“Are you interested in gardening, Akira-kun?” she asked and had to laugh at how similar this was to their first real conversation.

He even answered the same thing as back then: “Sure, you want some help?”

“I’m glad,” was all she could answer, but it couldn’t express her relief that there was a chance for her to garden and bond with Akira-kun again.

Step by step, she explained what they needed to do, but Akira was a quick learner. Had always been, but wasn’t he faster than before? “You’re really good at this,” she complimented.

“Thanks,” he said and added seriously, “I have my proficiency maxed out.” It was no wonder that he got along so well with Futaba, but seeing him tending to the soil as if it was his second nature, he had to be very proficient or have prior experience in gardening. The latter, he did not have last time.

Oh, right, last time they had made a deal! “I want to grow plants for our mission as Phantom Thieves,” she told him, “if we grow them like last time, they will be useful in the Metaverse.”

Akira nodded, but he didn’t say anything. Was he waiting for her?

Taking a deep breath, she added, “I actually have a request. I would like your help in growing coffee plants and brewing the beans. I want to make my own coffee for my father. ...if possible, before his change of heart.”

She knew that was another selfish request of her, but she had always asked herself, if there had been something else she could have done. She wanted to see, if she could still reach her father, even with his distorted desires.

“Only if possible,” she repeated. Her father’s life was more important than her wish.

“I have one more condition,” Akira smirked fondly, “Futaba actually wants to see you today. It’s an honourable quest I accepted.”

“Oh,” Haru let out pleasantly surprised, “I would love to see Futaba-chan.”

“It’s a deal, then.”

\--

“Mona!” Futaba shouted as Akira, Haru and Morgana (in Akira’s bag) entered Leblanc. The redhead jumped from her stool and ran up to Akira and made grabbing motions with her hands, “gimme, gimme!”

“No, wait-!” was all Morgana could shout in protest as Akira (the traitor) simply took his bag off his shoulder and put it in Futaba’s waiting arms.

“Meow! Stop!”

“No way, you can’t just abandon us like that, stupid Mona!” the girl explained as she freed the cat-like thief from the bag to hug him.

“Calm down, Futaba,” called Sojiro but while he was clearly surprised, he was also more amused than worried.

“Reporting in: my mission was successful,” Akira informed the redhead who wasn’t listening to her guardian.

Futaba looked up and as if seeing Haru for the first time, she bounced over to her, Morgana still in her arms, “Hey, Haru! Akira probably told you, but I gotta talk to you!”

And just like that Morgana was finally freed as Futaba hurried Haru out of Leblanc and to her room.

“So,” Sojiro spoke up curiously before Akira could disappear upstairs, “what’s going on here? You brought over another girl? You’re not going around breaking hearts are you?”

He was just stealing them, really. Akira smirked before he leaned back relaxed, “something like that.” Morgana couldn’t stop himself from rolling his eyes at that line while Sojiro first looked confused and then irritated. Finally, he sighed, “just be careful, okay?”

The leader of the Phantom Thieves nodded, which at least meant that he would try, but Sojiro and Morgana knew that Akira was probably a lost cause in that regard.

Taking his nearly empty bag, he headed upstairs with Mona following close behind. The human sat on the bed and looked to his friend, waiting. Morgana jumped up the bed, too, he wouldn’t get out off this with Akira looking at him like this. “You know our give-and-take deal? I want to renew it. I’ll give my best in the Metaverse and help with infiltration tools in return for staying here.”

Akira leaned forward and looked him deep in the eyes. In the beginning, his eyes had made Morgana uncomfortable, especially with what nearly always followed after – and this time, too, Morgana didn’t have to wait long for the smirk. “It’s too late to back out,” the leader said as he leaded back again, “you’re stuck here.”

“...about that,” the cat like thief hesitated. But he didn’t really know why – he had already told Ryuji of all people! He took a deep breath, “I wanna stay here forever!”

For once, he was glad, that he was in cat form and couldn’t blush visibly with his black fur. 

“Sure,” Akira nodded and mercilessly added, “so, you finally made up with Ryuji?”

“We weren’t fighting!” Morgana protested. And they weren’t, not really, it was just ...something different than a fight! “...but I did learn some things from Ryuji. That it’s okay for me to stay here just because I want to. That’s okay, ...right?” he admitted softly.

“Yes,” Akira nodded, seriously.

Morgana sighed a breath of relief, his heart already felt lighter, but, quickly to also lighten the mood, he added, “I never thought I would say that about Ryuji, though.”

“Heh,” the teenager laughed as if he had expected that (he had), “I glad you two made up.”

“Enough of that,” grumbled Mona, “what have you planned today?”

\--

When Akira returned home in the evening, he was not only greeted by Sojiro’s familiar face, but also by Akechi’s. The detective was sitting in his usual seat at the counter, drinking a cup of coffee. As always, he looked tired and lost deep in thought.

Akira had always known that Akechi was someone who shielded himself against the world and its inhabitants with pleasant words and light jokes, but now he knew what the other teenager was hiding:

Plans for revenge, no matter how. Someone who was planning to kill Akira and would do it.

But also, someone without a place to belong. The person that Akira had managed to catch glimpses of in their limited conversations.

“Ah, good evening, Kurusu-kun,” greeted Akechi with his usual media smile, he had looked up from his coffee by now. Right, Akira had been standing there for some time – Sojiro was already giving him one of his suspicious looks. “I am intruding in your home once again. My apologies for spending so much time here. This café just has a truly calming atmosphere, I feel at ease here.”

There Akechi went again, apologising for being a paying customer. Well, Akira got the reason behind that now. It just felt weird to not have heard it from the detective himself, he had no idea. Probably a good thing.

“Is something the matter?” Akechi asked, looking conflicted now. 

Akira cringed inwardly. God, he was acting all weird. He should probably take some acting lessons together with Ann, if it turned into a habit. Well, he had to work with this now.

“Sorry, just tired,” he answered with a shrug. And then he did something stupid – he knew because Morgana actually hissed from out of his bag - “I could use some coffee, wanna drink with me?”

Stunned, Akechi just blinked at him for a second. Both of their gazes went to the detective’s still half full cup. His usual smile appeared on his face again, “it would be my pleasure.”

Morgana hissed again.

Neither Akechi nor Sojiro reacted to obvious cat hissing sounds from his bag. It was kind of funny, if Akira thought about it. He would normally get an earful from Morgana for this, but the other thief was doing his best to appear as a normal cat. Never knew when that could come in handy.

“Cool,” he said, “just let me drop off my bag and I’ll make myself a cup and join you.”

“Did you eat?” Sojiro cut in. He had been quietly watching, not getting too deeply involved as he did with all his customers. As Akira shook his head, Sojiro sighed, “fine, bring your bag upstairs, I’ll make you coffee and some curry. Akechi, you want some, too? I’ll make you a special offer – curry for half the usual price.”

Akira nodded in thanks and went upstairs. He could hear Akechi’s polite denial, “oh, I possibly couldn’t accept that offer. I don’t wish to be a burden. I-“

But the rest was quickly cut off as Morgana furiously jumped out of the bag. His face asked loud and clear “are you an idiot?!”. As loud as he dared, the cat-like thief whispered, “are you an idiot?!” (Akira had been right, a small comfort) “What are you doing?”

In answer he confidently smirked, “observing the enemy.”

He was bullshitting and his friend wasn’t buying it. But there really was no logical reason, just a gut feeling, well, a persona singing in his head. Same difference, it was probably just as reliable as his stomach.

“I got this,” he assured and made a strategic retreat. There was just no arguing with Mona sometimes and Akechi was waiting anyways.

In the meantime, the detective had apparently learnt that there was another person besides Morgana in this cafe with an iron will. Because Akechi was no longer sitting by the counter, but in the booth near the door, a hot serving of curry and a refilled, steaming cup of coffee in front of him. On the other side of the table Akira’s own dinner was served.

“Thanks, Boss,” he called to Sojiro as he headed to the table, he would sit in the corner his back to the wall because Akechi already sitting on the other side. He was facing the door and to Akira he looked ready to bolt at any second, even with the TV smile pasted on his face.

“There you are, Kurusu-kun. I was waiting, I am excited to try Boss’ curry, he told me that it was specifically made to go well with his coffee,” Akechi said. It was obviously small talk that Akira knew already, but he nodded anyway.

“Akira,” Sojiro called, “I’m leaving you in charge. Close up and wash those dishes after you two are finished, alright?”

“Got it.” Akira even gave a thumbs up.

“Good. And I already fed the cat.” With that Sojiro left, leaving behind two teenagers with dinner and a cat on a barstool who as intensely staring at them. Disapprovingly.

Akechi chuckled, “sometimes, I think your cat is watching me. I must be getting paranoid - a common disease in my line of work, I’m afraid.” Nope, that was real.

“Nah,” he said deadly serious, “Morgana’s different. Don’t mess with him.”

The detective chuckled again, “I can only imagine that. Your sense of humour is a refreshing as always. Just as this curry, it is delicious. Please give my compliments to Boss.”

“Sure, I’ll tell him that his curry is like my jokes; refreshing and delicious.” Morgana let out a weird mix of a snort and a meow that perfectly expressed his disagreement.

“That is...,” the stunned Akechi trailed off, he was probably looking for a polite word to explain that he wasn’t trying to compare curry and humour. It was an interesting thought and with how tasty Sojiro’s curry was, Akira took it as a compliment. At least someone appreciated his jokes.

Taking mercy on Akechi, Akira added, “you should just tell Boss yourself.”

“I will do that,” the detective took the out. He fell silent for a second, just staring into his by now lukewarm coffee.

As quickly as it came, the silence went away and Akechi spoke, “do you remember the rankings on the Phantom Aficionado Website? My own name has fallen in them but the CEO of Okumura Foods has held the top spot for some time. What do you think, Kurusu-kun? Are the Phantom Thieves going target Mr. Okumura next?”

So, Akira was being used for information on their next move. Completely ignoring Morgana shaking his head, he answered, “yes.”

“That is quite the confident response,” Akechi commented in a light tone that didn’t really feel light, at all. “Thank you for your honest opinion, I will heed your words and keep a close eye on Mr. Okumura. Maybe I will finally learn the method behind their crimes. Oh, I must be going. Thank you for eating with me, it has been a lovely meal.”

“Wait,” Akira stopped him and looked pointedly at the only half eaten serving of curry, “you should take the curry with you, I’ll just wrap it up to go.” 

But Akechi stood up anyway, “that is not necessary, please, don’t trouble yourself. It was-“

To tell the truth, there were actually only stubborn people in Leblanc. Sojiro, Morgana, Futaba and Akira. And Akechi was fighting a loosing battle.

“Nope,” Akira popped the p, “wait right there. I will chase you down, if you run.”

“Surely, you realise that’s going a bit far, don’t you?”

“It’s not, it’s Sojiro’s curry, so wait right there,” he repeated with a gesture to the seat. From his position, Akira was easily blocking Akechi’s way to the door. The detective looked ready to flee again, especially with how he was trying to see the door by looking around the other teen.

Finally, Akechi sat back down again, “if you insist.”

Akira eyed the sitting detective for a moment longer before making his way to the kitchen, still keeping an eye on Akechi. He was sort of sure that Akechi wouldn’t really run – he had too much pride for that – but Akira knew that he himself would totally bolt for real. You know, just to see if the other person would actually chase him down.

But Akechi remained seated long enough for Akira to fill up one of their lunch boxes with the leftover curry.

“Here,” he said as he handed the other team the bright red lunch box.

“Phoenix Rangers Neo Featherman?” was all Akechi asked as he grabbed the box. He stared at the red Featherman on it.

“You don’t like Red? Next time, I can give you another Featherman, we have the whole lunch box set.”

Akechi suddenly looked pale, “...the whole set? Can I see? I mean, may I see it?”

So Akechi was a Featherman fan. Huh, it fit him.

Shrugging once, Akira went to the kitchen and go out the other four parts of the set. Huh, Morgana wasn’t even protesting, he was just as stunned as Akechi, though they were for different reasons.

Suddenly, the detective cleared his throat, on his face was a light blush. “Thank you for...,” he paused, looking at the ground before his smile was back on, “thank you, Kurusu-kun. I really must be going now.”

Akira nodded to the red lunch box, “just make sure to return that or Futaba is going to kill me.”

“I will,” promised Akechi, “well then, good night.” He felt without waiting for a reply.

“I think I made him uncomfortable,” Akira commented to Morgana.

Who was bristling with anger, “don’t say that as if you just noticed! We all know you enjoy teasing people way too much!” (Yeah, point for Mona) “And what were you thinking?! You told Akechi that we’re going after Okumura! Are you insane?!”

Damn, he hadn’t dodged the after lecture. It was worth it though: he had confirmed that the sincere and lonely Akechi he had seen before was not an act. The side of the detective that was still thirsting for revenge, the side that Haru had told them about, it was real, he believe that, but it didn’t turn everything that happened into a lie. The sadder side of Akechi was also real, just another part of the same person.

Akira just didn’t know what to do with this knowledge yet.

“Joker!” Morgana shouted. Oops, he had not been listening, but still it was a good trick to call his code name as he tended to react to it more quickly. “You weren’t even listening, were you?”

“I wasn’t,” he confirmed simply.

Morgana hissed again, his fur was even standing up in anger. It looked more cute than intimidating.

The cat-like thief sighed, “you are a lost cause, you are far too reckless.” But Mona left it at that. Akira agreed, he was a lost cause. But he hadn’t meant to make his friend sad.

“We’ll make it work out,” he said, because he wasn’t sorry about his actions, “together. The show’s just starting.”

“Hmpf, don’t get all cocky now,” Morgana scolded, but his tone was much lighter – sometimes Akira didn’t understand the deep trust the others had in him – “you still have a lot to learn, but that’s what I’m here for!”

\--

17/9 – Saturday

“Now that everyone is here,” Morgana said, standing on the table they had borrowed from Sojiro, he was glancing at Ryuji, who had been late as usual, “we can start the meeting.”

Everyone sat in their usual places in the attic once again, three days later as promised. It was time to make their next decision.

“I’ve made up my mind,” Makoto announced, but her eyes landed on Futaba next, “Futaba-chan, I would like to know your decision first.”

The redhead cringed, inwardly and outwardly: giving the first speech was so not her thing. Still, she was under friends and spoke, “I’m okay with Akira’s plan.”

“Futaba-chan,” whispered Ann before speaking up, “why did you change your mind?”

“I became a Phantom Thief to find out the truth about my mom, but I also wanna help people. I realised that it’s more important to help Haru right now.”

“And you are alright with Akechi joining us? Even just to fool him?” Yusuke asked.

“I’m not gonna lie, it’s gonna be super weird and super awkward, but I’ll deal, it’s not like we gotta be best friends with him,” Futaba explained with a shrug like Akira often did, even though she wasn’t feeling the least bit relaxed.

No one was surprised to hear Ryuji mutter a “thank god” about that. Makoto pushed that one rebellious strain of hair back behind her ear.

“What about you, Mako-chan?” Haru asked the brunette.

“I am in favour of Akira’s plan as well,” she answered.

“I see,” Yusuke was the first to react and ask, “even with the danger this poses to your sister?”

“I am doing this because she is my sister,” Makoto explained with determination in her eyes, “I never brought it up until now, but the reason I joined the Phantom Thieves is because I wanted to change my sister’s heart. I have known for some time that my sister has a palace, but I was also hoping that we would never have a reason to change her heart. But now things are different.”

She paused and after a deep breath, she continued, “now, we need to change my sister’s heart to save her. I have been thinking about different scenarios, but I always come to the conclusion that Sis is in danger. If Shido and his people are planning on making Sis the head of the Phantom Thieves investigations either way, then she is the best choice for a mental shutdown. If they start taking down innocent government workers in the name of the Phantom Thieves, our popularity will fall - and that is their goal; to promote Shido’s popularity by branding us as dangerous criminals.”

“You believe that your sister could be used like my father or Principal Kobayakawa,” Haru summarized.

“Yes,” was the confirmation, “we can’t afford not to act right now. I believe that we can save Haru’s father, my sister and many others – thus, we need to take a gamble, but this time we have the advantage.”

“Alright! I’m getting pumped!” shouted Ryuji. He looked ready to jump up and just get going.

“Never thought, I’d see you this excited to have Akechi join us,” teased Ann, “oh, that reminds me, how are we going to get him to join?”

“Mwehehe,” grinned Futaba, her laptop PC suddenly at the ready, “I actually did some research with the permission from Haru!” She held up her index finger to call for extra close attention before she turned around her laptop to them, “tadaa!”

On the screen they could see the front entrance and walkway to a big corporation. Not just any corporation, Akira recognised to from recent news about this very building getting vandalised repeatedly – it was the HQ of Okumura Foods, the place that housed Kunikazu Okumura’s palace.

And Akechi was passing by on the walkway. It looked as if he was simply taking a walk through a busy street, that is, until Futaba played two other videos of Akechi passing through there on different days.

“He’s staking out the place,” Morgana spoke what everyone was thinking, “and he’s always there at the same time after school, he knows our schedule.”

“Exactly!” confirmed the redhead, “I realised that Haru wrote about Akechi having pictures to blackmail us, so I realised that he had to be there to take them and to check if we took the bait. So I hacked the newly installed security cameras at Okumura Foods HQ!”

“Futaba-chan had the idea to lure Akechi-kun into the palace with . And as my father is on guard because of the negative media coverage, he will see us as threats right away. Akechi-kun will have to explain why his clothes changed,” explained Haru.

“But wouldn’t just he attack us or somethin’?” asked Ryuji, “Mona was nagging about that last time.”

“I said that we shouldn’t outright attack Akechi, not that he would attack us!” protested Morgana angrily before he huffed and continued calmer, “I don’t think we need to be worried about that. Openly attacking us would mean that he can’t use us anymore and his plans would be ruined.”

“Actually...” Ann cut in, “that’s all good, but are you sure that he’s going to be there? I mean, it’s been some time since the ratings started, couldn’t he like assume that we’re not changing Okumura’s heart?”

“He’s going to be there,” declared Akira with a serious expression. Futaba and Morgana both gave him an unimpressed look. “Yeah, after yesterday, Akechi will definitely be there,” the former confirmed.

“Yesterday? What are you talking about?” Ryuji questioned.

“I told Akechi that we’re targeting Okumura,” Akira explained just like that while his friends clearly thought that this was no small piece of information, going by the shocked reactions.

“Why did you tell him that?!” demanded Ann.

“He asked.”

“That’s sooo not reason enough!”

“Calm down,” Makoto called for order before this could escalate, “while I don’t understand Akira’s reason, it’s a fact that what’s done is done and this works in our favour. I actually have a plan on how to get Akechi to join us and on how to handle him, but it would need everyone’s cooperation. And some of you are not going to like my idea.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're still here now also available with Goro Akechi! ...this "only" took like +22k words xD
> 
> On another note, Yusuke and Hifumi are awkward friends because I always feel bad for Yusuke not going to Shujin and his classmates staying away from him.


	6. Chapter 6

18/9 - Sunday

The Phantom Thieves of Hearts met up once again the next day. Fully prepared for a trip to the Metaverse that they weren’t really planning on making. Because today was the perfect day for Makoto’s plan.

Because today was no school. They had watched the security videos of Okumura Foods HQ often enough to find a pattern in when and how long Akechi kept watch on the location of the palace. On school days, Akechi only took a precisely timed walk with a route that allowed him to see the front of the building as long as possible.

On days with no school, however, Akechi actually sat down on a bench and ...well, they guessed that he pretended to read a newspaper (Akira insisted that this was the only possibility because it would fit a stake out to hide one’s face with a newspaper). They had to guess because the detective was clever in choosing his waiting spot: the bench was located in such a way that it was blocked from the security cameras by a big sign near the building. Only Akechi’s feet and legs showed on the video feed. It was like someone had positioned that bench and sign specifically for Akechi, it was really ridiculous. 

With a bigger time frame to lure and encounter Akechi in the Metaverse, it was only logical to choose this Sunday, even if it was a bit rushed.

And this cause of action was in accordance with their resolution to save Haru’s father as soon as possible. 

Still, the famous thieves were all nervous:  
Futaba kept checking her phone (and the security feed), Ann was talking in a forced voice, Ryuji’s hunch looked tense, Yusuke and Morgana kept looking around, Haru looked like she was lost in her worries and even Makoto kept pushing her hair back behind her ear more than necessary.

The only normal one was Akira. He was so relaxed, it was damn cheeky. But it was also what his friends needed right now, someone to take the lead. Thus, they weren’t angry as he simply walked them to the meeting point they had discussed beforehand.

Because Akechi wasn’t the only clever one, they had chosen their own spot out of the camera’s range but close enough to Akechi. They actually stood behind him and a little to the left.

They got into position, they were suspiciously quiet for their group – there was not even a motivational shout of “let’s do this!” from Ryuji – but they had to risk that suspicious behaviour, lest Akechi noticed them and moved out of their range and wasn’t pulled into the palace with them.

“Don’t get reckless,” whispered Makoto, before everyone gave their final, silent nod as a sign that they were ready.

Akira hit the screen of his phone faster than ever before and the emotionless, standard voice of all navigation systems could be heard loud and clear: 

“Beginning navigation.”

A familiar dizzy feeling filled all their heads for a second and they all closed their eyes. They always did so automatically – it was a bit like the reflex to close your eyes while sneezing, probably some sort of protection because their minds couldn’t take looking directly at the change (at least that was Futaba’s theory based on what she had seen from her mother’s research).

When they opened their eyes, the world around them had disappeared.

All they could see was nothing in their unusually big disorientation. Akira noticed first that he literally saw stars. And was floating.

“Waah!” screamed Ann, as she drifted without control into Yusuke, who not so gently hit a glass wall behind him. (“Again?” the artist asked at his luck of being hit by Ann.)

“What’s going on?!” demanded Ryuji as Makoto called for them to calm down (it was a lost cause).

Akira looked in front of him, where Okumura Foods HQ used to be, and saw a giant space station instead.

And more importantly, dressed in a striking white outfit, Goro Akechi was floating in his line of sight.

Their eyes met and Akechi’s widened comically behind his red mask with a long beak.

Ignoring the mayhem his friend were causing behind him, Akira spoke, “hi, fancy meeting you here.”

“Well, it’s – ah!” Akechi had started to answer with his usual smile but cut himself off, as he too drifted off headfirst.

“Is that Akechi?! The detective prince!?” Ann gasped obviously fake, but hopefully said detective was too busy trying to find something to hold on to, to notice.

It was hard with them being stuck in some kind of glass satellite that circled the main part of the palace. Their glass cage was also decorated with several, holographic Big Bang Burger logos. An advertisement satellite?

“Well, this is a surprise,” continued Akechi as if nothing had happened and as if he wasn’t desperately trying to press himself to the wall and hold on to a flat surface.

To be fair, no one of the thieves was faring much better. They just had advantage that they helped each other as they quickly formed a relatively steadying chain by holding on to each others’ arms and shoulders.

With some difficulty, Makoto grabbed Akira’s shoulder and pulled herself forward to hover next to him. “We are the surprised ones, Akechi-kun,” she spoke in a sharp tone.

“Yes, you can enter the Metaverse and you are clearly a persona user,” added Morgana, who was stuck somewhere between a green looking Futaba and Haru who was trying to comfort the redhead. Understandably, he looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there.

“...a cat?” Akechi asked.

“I’m a human!” came the usual shout of protest.

On some kind of autopilot, the detective answered, “my apologies.”

Makoto cut in before the topic could derail further, “back to the topic at hand. Akechi-kun, how long have you been able to enter the Metaverse?”

“I don’t think you are in a position to ask questions, member of the famous Phantom Thieves, Makoto Niijima,” countered Akechi, his tone still pleasant and his smile TV-ready.

“So, you’ve recognised us,” Makoto smiled at him and pushed her hair back behind her ear (without gravity, it naturally didn’t stay put), “well, I expected nothing less. Going by how you were pulled into the Metaverse along with us, you must have been close by. You were watching us, correct?”

A frown now marred Akechi’s face, “I have no reason to answer that.”

“Your silence is answer enough,” the brunette commented quite satisfied.

They stared at each other for a long moment. The other thieves waited silently as they had promised to let Makoto handle most of the talking – it was her plan after all.

“I should turn all of you over to the police,” Akechi challenged, “cooperating is in your best interest, to lessen your sentence.”

But Makoto brushed the threat away as if it was nothing but dust, “you should, but you can’t, after all you lack evidence. And you desperately need solid evidence, because who would believe the existence of the Metaverse? That’s also the reason why you were following us even though you know how we operate.”

“Why yes,” Akechi confirmed pleasantly where Makoto’s tone was sharp, “but I have managed to verify your identities, gathering evidence for your crimes will be much easier now.”

“What crimes? There is no law against changing a heart,” countered the advisor.

“Is the changing of a heart against the victim’s will not brainwashing? I consider such an act a crime and your victims-,” but Akechi was cut off by Ryuji: “Victims my ass! Those guys were nothing but rotten adults!”

Ann, too, couldn’t keep quiet any longer, “we’re helping people!”

“I can see that you really believe that,” now the detective sounded sad, “but if you truly only change hearts, I can see why that is the case... let me speak honestly, I believed that the Phantom Thieves were responsible for the mental shutdown incidents.”

“I assure you that we would never commit a crime this vile,” Yusuke spoke up, he was directly behind Akira and holding on to his forearm, so that their leader wouldn’t drift away.

“We do not kill, we only wish for bad people to pay for their crimes. Killing people is unforgivable!” Haru added resolved. Next to her the still green looking Futaba agreed with a weak “yeah” of her own.

“I see,” Akechi looked to the bottom of the glass satellite, thinking “I wish to believe you but without evidence...”

“Then you should join us,” Makoto cut to the case.

“Huh?” Akechi looked shocked, for him this must be too good a deal. For Akira, too, it seemed to easy to get to this point, but, well, they both had the same goal (just without the other noticing) that probably helped.

“Temporarily, of course,” clarified the advisor, “you will join us as we change Mr. Okumura’s heart and during that time, you will not report us to the police.”

Akechi frowned, “are you trying to turn me into an accomplice, Niijima-san?”

“You could think of it as an undercover mission, if you want to,” chuckled the brunette, “but I know this is a good deal for you, you would be learning our methods after all.”

“Yes, that is true,” the detective was still sceptical, maybe he was playing hard to get, “what happens after the change of Mr. Okumura’s heart? There would be nothing stopping me from turning you over to the police.”

“That’s correct,” Makoto agreed with a smile, “if you still believe that we are unjust, you are free to turn us in, Akechi-kun.”

“You sound confident that I will change my mind.”

“I am. We will show you our justice.”

And there it was, the part that Makoto described as simple but effective. Proving their justice to Akechi was a good way to offer him a place on the team while also making him underestimate them because of their own supposed overconfidence.

“I see,” mumbled Akechi to himself, his hand holding his chin in his official thinking pose.

From near the glass wall, Ryuji called as quietly as he could (which was pretty loud), “Joker, say something!”

“No!” Ann protested, but it was already too late, Akira had already said “something” at the same time as her.

“...you should really stop using that one,” complained Morgana.

“Yeah, it gets old,” Ann agreed.

“Really? I quite like it when Akira does that,” Haru smiled at him.

“See? Two people appreciate my sense of humour,” Akira cheekily smirked at him before turning to Futaba and Yusuke, “Oracle, Fox, you get it, too, right?”

While the redhead gave a shaky thumbs up, their artist said, “it is part of Joker’s charm.”

Akira gave his best to make his smirk even bigger, “now that that’s settled-“

“Nothing’s settled!” Ann protested, “Queen, what about you?”

“Well... I would appreciate it, if he could stay serious, because this is not the time for this.”

But her important complaint was ignored. “See?” Ann looked proud of herself.

“Nope,” Akira popped the p satisfied, “that’s you, Mona, Queen and Skull cruelly against my superior sense of humour, but Noir, Fox, Oracle, Akechi and I have great taste.”

“Dude, you don’t count when it’s about you,” Ryuji pointed out.

“Do we really have to talk about this now?” asked Makoto, she sounded like she was suffering.

Suddenly, they heard a chuckle. It was Akechi, he was smiling at them, “you are truly a unique group.”

(Behind Akira, Ryuji murmured to himself, “makes me mad when he says that.” Luckily, Akechi hadn’t heard ...or was ignoring it.)

“I have made my decision, while you were otherwise occupied. I accept your deal.”

“Cool,” Akira shrugged.

The detective chuckled again, “thank you. I hope that you won’t regret this decision.”

“We won’t. We are confident in our justice,” declared Makoto and the whole group agreed.

Expect Futaba who choked out, “can we leave now?”

Looking at how she was still dangerously green, that was long overdue. Sadly, it was sort of sweet how they all had to hold on to each other and how Akechi was pretending that this wasn’t bothering him at all, but now it had to end.

“I agree with Oracle,” spoke Yusuke, looking around, “but how do we leave this place? The only way out leads into space.”

Following his gaze, there was a small hatch above them, even it was made of glass.

“It’s the only exit,” said Morgana a bit uncertainly. Well, it was hard to tell which way they had come from, “we have to try, I guess.”

“How are we gonna reach that?” asked Ryuji, who was one of the farthest people away.

“Oh, I know!” exclaimed Haru suddenly, “we should form a chain to reach the hatch! This seems like fun!”

“Fun? I wouldn’t call it that...” murmured Ann from where she was still stuck between Ryuji and Yusuke.

“Let’s try it,” shrugged Akira, it wasn’t like they had a better option. Playing pinball in here by crashing into each other in hopes of reaching the hatch sometime in this life was not a good option, “Akechi, come here.”

The detective looked at the offered hand for a second before he got the thief’s intention and pushed himself carefully off the glass.

Drifting off, he caught himself more on Akira’s arm than his hand. “Everyone, hold on tight,” the leader ordered as he pushed Akechi towards the hatch without letting go. Their newest teammate managed to reach it without a problem.

He hesitated for a moment, opening the hatch would mean casting them into open space – that was a little scary – but with one last deep breath from everyone, Akechi pushed the hatch open.

The effect was instant. The detective was pulled into space and disappeared. Akira nearly didn’t see it happening as he, too, was pulled along. He had never been this glad to finally have solid ground under his feet again. Even if they had ended up landing in an awkward pile of tangled limbs because they had still been holding on to each other.

“Let’s never enter a palace from this far away again,” groaned Futaba as they had finally freed themselves, but at least she was looking less green already.

“Agreed,” sighed Makoto, “I think we should continue this tomorrow.”

\--

Akira looked at Akechi from the corner of his eye. The detective looked (and probably felt) out of place in his clothes. At first Akira had thought that Akechi was actually wearing his school uniform even on a free day, but upon further investigation he noticed that it was not. It just looked like it: brown slacks, a white shirt and the critical detail: he was not wearing his school tie but instead a loose bow tie in black. Just like the first detective prince, Naoto Shirogane, had often worn in her high school days. It probably wasn’t a coincidence.

Anyways, the point was that the second detective prince’s casual clothes didn’t look casual at all and now he was sticking out like a sore thumb in Tokyo Dome City Amusement Park.

What were they doing in Dome Town? Well, it was Ryuji’s fault. The blond thief had loudly proclaimed his distrust about Akechi not keeping his word and turning them in to the police (not in those words) and Akira had volunteered for babysitting duty (this time in those exact words).

Okay, it was his own fault: he had jokingly suggested to the still greenish Futaba (who was obviously stuck with him, Morgana and Akechi) that they could go to Dome Town.

And the redhead had risen to the challenge. Naturally on the condition that Akira paid for everything.

He agreed, looking at all the money they made in the Metaverse that he only used if it was necessary (because seriously, he wasn’t even sure that it was real money. It was cognitive, right? So wasn’t it basically false money? He didn’t know and wasn’t really keen on getting caught with millions in false money in his pocket. Even without his probation, there was no way he could explain that).

“Let’s go!” Futaba cheered as she pointed at the next rollercoaster which she had chosen to be their next ride once again. Akechi looked vaguely uncomfortable at the puke ride.

He had started out strong but two rides ago had been Akira’s choice and he had insisted that they go one floor up and ride the spinning teacups. Those had not been the detective’s favourite going by his breathing, but he pretended to be fine.

On the other hand, Akira and Futaba were having the time of their lives. Especially, their hacker was a pleasant surprise, at the beginning she had stuck to Akira as close as possible or she hid herself away between Akechi and him so that no one else could touch her, but soon she had forgotten about the large crowd and was now enjoying herself.

Morgana was a special case, he had joined them in the spinning teacups (something he no doubt regretted – those teacups were pure evil) but couldn’t really go on many other rides.

Taking pity on their detective, Akira pushed the Mona bag into his arms, “take care of Morgana, make sure he doesn’t throw up in my bag.”

“Hey!” protested the cat-like thief, but Akira and Futaba showed no mercy and ran for the rollercoaster. (Akira had brought a Skip Pass for this ride, so that they wouldn’t have to wait).

When they came back, Akechi greeted them with an awkward, “it is getting rather late.”

“You’re right,” Akira agreed but the detective’s relief didn’t last long as the thieves’ leader added, “we should get something to eat.”

“Alright!” cheered Futaba, “let’s get something super greasy and unhealthy at Akira’s expense!”

“I couldn’t possibly impose any longer-“

Futaba gasped, loudly. “Who turns down free food?! It’s an universal rule that free food is the best food!”

“Especially curry,” Akira added helpfully and he and Futaba shared a high-five. “The point is,” he explained further, deadly serious, “you can’t turn down free food.” 

“Correct!” the redhead added.

Morgana sighed and then advised, “just give it up, they’re not going to stop.” To make a point, the two thieves in question grinned cheekily.

“It seems like I have no choice,” Akechi gave in.

They decided on some Western restaurant and café where Futaba ordered the most expensive thing, Akira had to order something with fish to share with Morgana and (after a talk with the waiter) Akechi ordered the most popular dish on the menu.

“That hit the spot,” Futaba complimented the food, but added, “Sojiro’s curry is still the best though.”

“It was quite good,” Akechi agreed, but it was with his usual smile so it sounded like it was just the polite thing to say.

“Are you going to post about it?” Akira asked gesturing to Akechi’s phone with which he had taken a picture beforehand and even taken notes. He must be dedicated to his blog.

“Right, you’re the gourmet detective,” Futaba had even already pulled up his latest food review. Akira cringed inwardly at the comments underneath. Akechi was being criticised for “wasting his time by playing around, it was no wonder that the police got nothing done” – naturally, not in those words and with a lot of spelling mistakes or in all caps or both.

“I see, you looked up my name,” Akechi said instead of answering the question.

“Obviously,” Akira shrugged, “it’s only common sense to thoroughly stalk everyone you meet on the net – of course, just to check, if they aren’t a stupid axe murderer who posts about his victims.” As a finishing touch, Akira creepily smirked at the other teen.

Morgana just expertly rolled his eyes while Futaba commented with a simple “creepy”. He was so glad to have gained their confirmation of his creepiness. Akechi just smiled at him and put his phone back into his pocket, obviously he had decided against posting about his meal – whether because of Akira or the cruel comments he usually got was unclear.

“That’s enough babysitting for today,” Akira decided as he waved at the waiter, ready to cough up more money, “Sojiro’s waiting anyways.”

Akechi blinked at in surprise, “are you saying that you trust me not to ‘run to the cops’ as Sakamoto-kun put it?”

“Not really,” answered Morgana with a mean look, “but it’s late...”

“Yeah,” agreed Futaba, “if you have the energy to run to the police now, then nothing will stop you from doing that.”

“We could lock him up in the basement,” Akira suggested with a straight face because that was his specialty, “wait, does Leblanc even have a basement?” Probably not.

His friends eyed him for a second and then decided to ignore him because he was not helpful at all. Well, he hadn’t been trying to be.

“Just go home already,” sighed Morgana.

\--

Futaba was quiet on the way back, she was lost in thoughts about the day. 

On one hand, she was satisfied that they were pulling off Makoto’s plan this successful.

Step one: getting Akechi to join the team. Check.  
Step two: getting a bug on Akechi’s phone. Check. (Shortly after Akira had volunteered as Akechi’s babysitter of the day, they had exchanged contact info with the detective and added him to the group chat. Futaba had used this opportunity to snatch up his phone to install the bug while pretending to admire his phone. At least it had been a decent phone, with some modifications it could become an awesome phone.)  
Step three: keeping Akechi was busy as possible so that he didn’t have the time to cause anymore mental shutdowns or psychotic breakdowns. In progress.

It was the latter thing that their advisor had warned them that they wouldn’t like and that was bothering Futaba.

Because she had a surprisingly fun day today. It could have all been an act, but Akechi had watched out for her in the beginning when all the people in the park were just too much for her. Akira’s presence had already worked wonders, but Akechi talking about the fact that the Hero Action Show was unfortunately already sold out had been the final trick.

Talking about Featherman was always a good way to distract her. A passionate discussion about which show was the best had her completely coming out of her shell.

She had briefly wondered how he knew about her love for Featherman but remembered that Akira had just lent Akechi one of her lunch boxes – without asking!

And he wasn’t even feeling regret! He had told her that he would make her curry, if she started using them. Like that was the problem!

She wasn’t even allowed to touch those lunch boxes, let alone use them. Sojiro had brought them in an attempt to motivate Futaba to go to school by enforcing the rule that she could only use them for school lunches. He had even stashed them at Leblanc so that they wouldn’t disappear in the black hole that was Futaba’s room.

She had been super jealous and angry at Akira for just lending one to Akechi. (That was probably the reason that Akira had been this generous with his money today).

Knowing that the detective was a Featherman fan somehow made it better – at least the guy knew to appreciate the red lunchbox!

And that was the problem. Behind his TV-smile and over the top polite speech, Akechi was probably a normal person. Someone she could hang out with, someone who dragged Akira away from the water based drives because they had no spare clothes, someone competitive to ride the rollercoaster with until they puked, someone who didn’t seem like a murderer.

Somehow, sometime during the day she had forgotten that she was standing next to her mother’s murderer.

Futaba didn’t know how to feel about that yet. At least Mona seemed to understand her, he was silent, too, and not complaining about their babysitting job today.

She looked at Akira, he too was silent. He mostly was when there wasn’t something deadly serious going on or someone to tease/confuse.

He didn’t look worried at all.

But Akira had also been the one to outright say that they needed to save Akechi, addressing the elephant in the room that the detective had died in Haru’s timeline.

The redhead had thought that it was just his hero complex that caused him to meddle and get into trouble. But after today she wasn’t so sure anymore.

She didn’t know how to feel about that either.

\--

“Sir, there were a few unexpected circumstances with the Phantom Thieves ...yes, I have managed to verify their identities, but we had an unfortunate run-in. ...yes sir, Okumura’s change of heart will happen without a mental shutdown. ...my apologies. ...no, I- yes sir, I apologise, but it is impossible to- yes, sir, I will not fail, I will personally make sure that the plan succeeds.”

Akechi clicked his tongue as the call cut off. Now Shido was angry at him and he had to deal with those pesky thieves sooner than expected.

Hmm, he had a bad feeling about this. Something about the little group’s behaviour seemed atypical to him, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. It kept nagging at him in the back of his mind that things were not supposed to happen this way ...which was ridiculous, he didn’t know the Phantom Thieves well enough to make that kind of observation yet.

He yawned and his eyelids felt heavy. Today had been exhausting, more so than any trip to the Metaverse. His head was pounding and he couldn’t think.

Still in the process of undressing, he gave up and fell on his bed. He closed his eyes. No one could see him now anyways. For once, he slept at what was considered a normal time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, this chapter was supposed to include the first part of Okumura's palace but, well, I'm struggling with the dungeon crawling.  
> But I hope you enjoyed the missing gravity and the visit to the amusement park :)


	7. Chapter 7

9/19 – Monday

Haru looked around her, as they entered the palace. It felt surreal to be here again, she had seen this very space station crumble not too long ago.

“Thank god, there’s gravity this time!” Ann sounded relieved and Futaba was quick to agree. Still, their navigator didn’t look comfortable – the first time she had gotten a little motion sick as the group had travelled through the airlocks in the higher levels of the palace, too.

That’s why Haru had brought travel sickness pills with her, just some light medicine meant to help with plane rides, but hopefully it would help Futaba a little.

The redhead looked fine for the moment, so Haru looked around. She already knew what to expect and looking a bit next the group where Akechi stood, she wondered if he knew what to expect as well. Had he already found a way through her father’s palace? Honestly, she expected him to have done that already. Akechi had always seemed prepared for everything.

“We need a code name for our newest member,” Mona called everyone to attention.

“Ah, yes, I have noticed that you used aliases yesterday. May I ask what everyone’s code name is?” spoke Akechi.

“I am Fox,” started Yusuke and pointed at everyone as he said their names, “that’s Panther, Skull, Mona, Queen, Joker, Oracle and Noir.”

“I can see the reasoning behind some of them, but there seems to be no apparent system.”

“Yeah, we were a bit literal while picking some of our names,” Ann admitted.

Makoto continued, “everyone picks their own code name, but we can offer suggestions.”

“Bird!” Ryuji shouted as a suggestion, grinning, “y’know cause of the long beak thing his mask’s got.”

“Rejected,” Futaba decided quickly.

Akechi cleared his throat, “how about Karasu?” So, he had even suggested the same name as before. And this time, too, Ann-chan changed it to Crow because an English name fit better with them.

“Dude, your clothes ain’t black at all,” protested Ryuji, “and that’s still a bird.”

“A cooler bird,” clarified Futaba while Akechi explained how a code name’s purpose was to conceal one’s identity and like this the code name was misleading.

Haru felt a bit happy at how similar this was to the discussion about code names they had with Akechi in front of Sae Niijima’s palace. So much had already changed, but she was relieved that some things stayed the same – to her it meant that they were still the same people and Haru couldn’t imagine better people than her friends.

And it reminded Haru of the time she had gotten her own code name in this dungeon, two times even. First the name “Beauty Thief” from Mona and later her own pick “Noir”. It somehow made the palace feel nostalgic.

“Well then, is there anything I need to know before we begin?” asked Akechi after the discussion of his name had settled down.

“Nah, this is a learnin’ by doing kinda thing,” answered Ryuji relaxed.

But Makoto quickly added: “That is the best way to describe it, but there are some things to know. As our leader, Joker will pick three of us to serve as a main infiltration team with him while the rest follows further behind as protection for our guide, Oracle, and as backup, if necessary.”

“I see, I will be in your care, Joker,” Akechi smiled, “do you have any tips for me?”

Akira’s lips stretched into a big grin, “act flashy.”

For a moment Akechi waited for anything else but Akira had already moved to talk to Futaba about what her scan told her. Ann awkwardly walked up to him.

“Just listen to Joker’s orders and watch us, I guess you’ll get it then,” she advised sounding a bit uncertain.

“I will,” promised the detective in turn.

“Great, so everyone’s ready,” Akira spoke loudly and they all gathered around him, “Crow and Noir, you two are with me – let’s see what you can do.”

“I promise to exceed your expectations,” Akechi declared. And Haru nodded along, “I will do my best as well.”

“Good,” their leader acknowledged and then continued, “Mona, you’re on the team, too. Panther, Fox, Skull and Queen, you’re protecting Oracle as usual. Queen, you’re their boss.”

Ryuji groaned loudly about how he had wanted to fight, too, and Haru had to smile at his enthusiasm.

“Everyone gets their turn,” Akira promised, “we’re changing teams and fighting a lot today.”

Haru remembered that, they had done this when she had joined the first time, too, to test new combinations and to see who worked together best.

Ryuji groaned again at that thought. Well, Haru had to admit, it had been a bit hectic and very, very exhausting to always change positions and formations. Let alone all the fighting.

But she was determined to prove herself to her friends. They were even counting on her information about the dungeon and she was confident that she could be of help because she already knew what to expect.

However, that made the palace no less terrible.

The first room alone made her legs freeze and her stomach drop. She remembered the horrors of this dungeon, the cruelty with which her father treated his workers, how he thought of the world and put his own success above everything and everyone else.

Nevertheless remembering and seeing were completely different. ...and Haru had to admit to herself that the loss of her father had dulled her feelings towards his crimes. She had certainly not forgotten about them, but in light of the gap her father had left in her life, they had not been as bad as before – she was such a horrible person to be able to forget about other people’s suffering this easily.

“How horrible,” murmured Ann next to her, as a robot broke down only to be ignored. A hand gently landed on Haru’s shoulder, it was Makoto. “Let’s move on,” she called out to the group and Akira was already in position again.

Quickly, they reached the room with the biometric lock. Ryuji stopped before the giant hologram, “what is this thing? A frisbee?”

“Maybe a hamburger bun, we are dealing with Big Bang Burger here,” suggested Futaba.

Akechi stepped closer as well, “considering the rest of the palace, I would say it is same sort of spacecraft, an UFO, if you will.”

“I’m sure we’ll find out, whether we want to or not,” sighed Makoto, but her eyes told a different story. She was definitely trying to solve the puzzle as well.

With no solution to the riddle in sight, they moved to the Biometric Authentication Door. “Leave it to me,” Haru said, as she stepped forward, hoping that she sounded braver than she felt. She had a bad feeling...

The door piped and the words “Access granted” appeared above. “Nice one, Noir!” cheered Ryuji as the door opened.

Not one shadow greeted them, as they carefully stepped through. But, Haru knew, this was the place where they first met her father’s shadow.

“What are you doing here!?” the familiar voice, muffled by the space suit, called out as if on cue. Kunikazu Okumura’s shadow walked up to them, just as Haru remembered him – wearing a black space suit with a long cape, blue skin and those angry yellow eyes.

“This is insane on so many levels...!” Ann whispered in shock and Haru couldn’t help but agree. Her father didn’t even look human anymore.

“I thought I told you not to associate with vulgar people,” her father’s shadow lectured her.

“Father...,” Haru murmured and raising her head high, she took a step forward to face her father once again, “do you recall what I said before? That I would try my best for you? This is my answer to that!”

The shadow eyed their little group suspiciously, “are those... the rumoured Phantom Thieves?” He looked at them all as if they were nothing but dirt underneath his feet that had dared to soil his very expensive shoes. “...I see!” he finally exclaimed, smirking satisfied at Haru, “You’re handing them over to me! You’ve once again proved your worth to me, my daughter – you truly understand what it means to be an Okumura. Come, join me.”

Instead, Haru took a step back. This was not how it had happened last time. She remembered every word her father had said, she had laid awake many nights turning them over and over in her head, wondering if there had been something to change his mind. She took another step back and nearly stumbled over Mona. 

Oh, that’s right. She was not alone. She had friends who believe in her. She smiled at all of them, hoping that she was able to convey at least a fraction of the gratitude she felt for them.

“No, Father, you misunderstand,” Haru stared the shadow right in the eyes, “I am here to stop you with the help of my friends. You only ever think about your own goals. Everything is always about gains and losses for you, that’s why our company has a bad reputation ...all because you think of people as if they’re tools! This has to stop!”

“What are you saying?” the shadow growled out before his head snapped to face the other thieves of the first time, “what have you done to my obedient child?!”

“Mr. Okumura,” another, unfortunately also familiar, voice called out, “do not worry, that girl is nothing but a fake.” Sugimura-san, Haru’s now once again fiancé, stepped out of the shadows in his typical white suit. He made a grand sweeping gesture to his side, “your real daughter is right here at my side, where she belongs.”

Around her, Haru heard her friends shocked gasps as another cognition joined Sugimura and her father.

It was her, Haru. This was how her father saw her. ...she was a robot. A shiny new model, more human-looking than the workers, it was Haru had she been made of metal, wearing a metal white wedding dress. But she was a robot, a tool. Even Sugimura was worth more in her father’s eyes, he was a human. She had known this, she had for so long, but he was her father. Her father, who died because of her mistakes and she ...had she truly forgotten this cruel truth already?

“Noir,” Akira stood next to her, his hand on one shoulder, Makoto’s on her other, Morgana was tugging on her leg, Ann was squeezing her hand, Yusuke and Ryuji both awkwardly each laid a hand on her arm, Futaba was tugging on her shirt and even Akechi seemed to smile encouraging at her. 

That’s right. She was Noir, member of the famous Phantom Thieves of Hearts and she was not alone. She had friends who saw her and liked her for who she was. They weren’t here for their own self gain, but because she asked, because they were the most wonderful people on earth who were trying to do the right thing. And Noir was one of them, a heroine of justice, just as the ones on TV that Haru still admired.

“No, that is not me, Father,” she called out, her words felt heavy and her eyes stung with unshed tears, “but I will make you see again.”

Shadow Okumura busted out into loud laughter, “make me see again? You are talking nonsense, worthless imposter. I clearly see this world for what it is: To gain, you must give... One must be resolved to give even more if they wish to stand above others. The cold reality of kicking people is part of business! Virtue and sentiment are for losers. Because I live by these principles, soon, I will rise to a new stage – the political world!” He smirked at them again, “and if the price for that is my only daughter, then it is a price well paid and I know that my true obedient child will gladly help her father.”

“Yes, Father,” the cognitive Haru replied, her voice was as robotic and empty as her shell.

“Well said,” Sugimura wound one of his arms around her waist and pulled her close, she followed like the doll she was, “Mr. Okumura, we have no need for a dirty imposter of my sweet fiancé. Let us dispose of that eyesore as a sign of my gratitude.”

“That sleazy dirt bag is Noir’s fiancé?!” Ann shouted loudly. It was Ryuji who answered: "Don’t ask me, I didn’t even know she had one!”

The palace ruler didn’t even spare them another glaze as he walked away and his order was more of an afterthought, “deal with them how you wish.”

To Haru, her father’s back suddenly looked blurry. Oh, she had let some of her tears escape. She had really hoped for a happier time for her father and herself, but...

“So, you betrayed me anew,” she murmured, and she understood once again. She knew how to take the chains binding her and yank herself free. Her persona rattled inside her soul.

“Has your sadness given way to your desires, my princess?” Astarte whispered to her in her heart, “are you ready to walk the path of betrayal once again to obtain your own freedom?”

“Yes,” Haru answered aloud, just a giant robotic Sugimura approached them, “I will hesitate no longer, my knowledge will no longer cloud my vision for I will take hold of my fate and change it with my own two hands!”

“Psiodyne!” Astarte and her shouted together and Sugimura’s cognition, now a giant robot, fell flat on its back and struggled with getting up again, it laid there on its back like a beetle.

“Everyone, here they come!” shouted Futaba in warning as two Corporobos MDL-MKR – but Futaba decided to simply call them “blue robots” – rushed over to help cognitive Sugimura up. 

“You are going to pay for that!” Sugimura wheezed as he had gotten up again. The two blue robots positioned themselves left and right from Sugimura.

“No way! You’ll pay for being a total creep!” Ann shouted back before turning to Haru with a smile, “don’t worry, we’ll show that guy not to mess with women, here and in the real world.”

“Yeah, you’re gonna get it!” Ryuji screamed as he moved to protect Futaba and watch the fighting party’s back together with Makoto, Ann and Yusuke.

But Mona, too, could not be outdone as he proudly declared: “We are the Phantom Thieves, here to take your bride!”

“That fake could never be my bride,” Sugimura protested and the fight began, “go get them! Make them pay!”

The two henchmen immediately threw themselves at the party with an Assault Drive and a Triple Down.

“Those two are weak and rely on physical attacks,” Oracle informed them, “the big one is pretty strong, but we know his weakness!”

Joker smirked, “you heard her. Noir, focus on the big one. Crow and Mona, we’re taking down the small flies first.”

“Certainly!” Crow confirmed and attacked a worker robot with his bless magic, Robin Hood looking majestic and heroic above him.

The bless attack hit hard, however the cognition was resistant to bless attacks - it did quite a lot of damage nevertheless, a sign of how strong a persona user Crow was. Next was Noir, her persona at the ready. A second Psiodyne knocked robot Sugimura off his feet again. Oracle’s cheer of victory sounded in her head: “Nice going, one more!”

“Noir,” Joker called calmly and she knew an order would follow, “pass the baton to Mona!” He smirked and with a smile and a flashy move, it was Mona’s turn. “Magarula!”

Three medium strong gusts of green wind magic burst forth, hitting the Sugimura-bot and knocking the two workers down as well.

Not a second later, Joker gave the sign for an all out attack. Noir gripped her axe tight and followed after him and Mona. Looking behind her, she noticed that Crow hesitated a moment before he got what was going on and joined them as well.

Noir smiled as she remembered her first all out attack, she had been just as confused and perhaps a little shy, but now she could give it her all as she knew everyone was watching her back.

The two worker robots dissolved into black smoke before disappearing completely. Just Sugimura remained but he was weak.

“You won’t get away with this!” his robot voice shouted like some bad villain in a kid’s show just before his defeat.

But Noir had forgotten about the new player on the field, as the Robo-Haru called out: “My love! Everyone, quick help my beloved Sugimura-sama!”

And suddenly the ground shook as a few dozen little blue robots came running from both sides.

“What the eff?! We’re surrounded!” Skull shouted as they got ready to protect Oracle. But instead the workers just ran past them. Ten of them ran to Sugimura-bot, throwing themselves on their knees and giving him their own LP to heal him. They broke down and Sugimura-bot just stepped over them.

“You can do it everyone!” Robo-Haru suddenly called out again and golden magic light followed after. It was so bright that Noir had to close her eyes for a second.

She opened them again to a gasp from Oracle, “they transformed -that is so cool!” It was true, suddenly there was a second big robot before them. Four more workers joined the fight while the rest positioned themselves as a wall in front of Robo-Haru. “Oracle, analysis!” Joker ordered without a pause. 

“Already on it!” the redhead shouted back as Joker fired a Maragion at the six enemies before them. The four blue ones when down quickly.

“Joker!” Oracle called from behind, “the Robo-Haru can use boost magic and call for as many reinforcements as she wants! We need to take care of her first!”

Joker nodded, his gaze never leaving the enemy in front of them. They would never get to Robo-Haru like this, she was protected by the wall of workers, too.

“Crow,” Joker ordered with a smirk, “we’ll draw their attention while you take down Robo-Haru. Take Panther as support.”

“Understood,” the detective nodded but remained standing, waiting for his chance to sneak off while Joker jumped into action, a quick psy spell from a different persona sticking down Sugimura-bot again.

Noir had not the time to watch as Crow slipped away, as Joker’s next move was a baton pass to her: “Go wild, Noir.”

Her mask was off in a second and Astarte at her side, a powerful Mapsiodyne raining down on their enemies. Noir took great pride in how the other giant robot was brought to his knees and Sugimura-bot started giving of black smoke. “Fiancé!” he called but Robo-Haru was busy: Crow had her cornered and Panther was making quick work of the workers with her fire spells.

“Let’s take it down!” Mona cheered and Joker just made a flashy hand gesture that translated to “after you”. A second all out attack started and this time they never stood a chance.

\--

“Is everyone alright?” Makoto asked as soon as they had all entered the nearest safe room, it had basically been around the corner after their fight with Sugimura-bot and Robo-Haru.

Everyone who had joined the fight nodded but Makoto paid extra attention to Haru who was no doubt emotionally exhausted. There had been nothing about Robo-Haru in her notes, thus Makoto suspected that this was new to her on top of living through her father selling her off again.

But now, with Akechi present, was not the time to talk about this. Instead, Akira was already getting out the coffee and the plastic cups.

He filled up five cups and Ryuji sighed in relief. When it came to recovering SP with coffee, this was the only time that the blond was happy he didn’t get to fight.

Ann and Haru on the other hand happily accepted their cup, Morgana did, too, but like a true gentleman he only did so after his Lady Ann had gotten hers. Last but not least, Akira waved over Akechi who had been standing separately from everyone. Akira took the fifth cup himself.

“I see, you are using the cognitive belief that coffee replenishes ones energy which works much faster than in reality,” the detective commented.

“Yes,” it was Makoto who answered, “food generally has that effect in the Metaverse – and it is much easier to get than medicine.”

“We’ll have lunch later,” Haru informed him, “Akira-kun is always so kind to bring curry for everyone.”

“And curry’s the best, obviously!” Futaba added, daring anyone to disagree.

Naturally, no one did, instead they all sat around the table, drank their coffee and talked. They looked more like a group of cosplayers on a day trip than the famous Phantom Thieves of Hearts fighting their way through a palace.

But they were fighting their way through a palace, literally. There was so much fighting after their short break. Lots and lots of fighting.

First, they had to look for the ID card of a chief director by beating the cognition in that position, well before that they had to collect ID cards from lower positions to advance through the dungeon by fighting against the lower managers.

And instead of gathering information about the targets and only fighting them, Akira had decided to use those robots as training for the team and simply told them all outright that they were the Phantom Thieves.

For nearly every fight, they switched positions and tactics that even Ryuji was starting to look annoyed at having to fight.

But Akira didn’t even think about stopping, as he continued this strategy all the way to and through the Export Line, where they had to break machines to cross the conveyer belt of the factory several times.

As they entered the Production Line, Akira let up a little by sticking to one party for much longer but he still made them fight every shadow they met. Even Makoto couldn’t say anything against this as clearing the way was essential to crossing this part of the factory: they had to climb over several presses to continue onwards and the machines had to stand still for this, however they could only stop them for 30 seconds – there was no time for a fight there.

All in all the Space Station was a brutal mix of running and fighting, so everyone was happy when they finally had their lunch break after all this.

Somehow they all managed to sit around the futuristic table as they ate their curry. It was a quiet meal, inside palaces meals mostly were, after all they always saw people's distorted desires here. And Kunikazu Okumura’s palace was no different, he was mercilessly exploiting his employees.

Thus, lunch was quiet, they would all be loud and energetic – flashy as Akira had put it – when they resumed their dungeon crawling, but right now they just sought solace in each others presence.

The first time she had lunch in a palace, Haru remembered finding the silence disturbing, she had worried about her friends at the stark contrast to their usual behaviour and tried to start a conversation, but now she too enjoyed those moments of quiet closeness and comfort.

She also remembered that Akechi had had the same problem in Sae-san’s palace, he had tried to start idle chatter multiple times, but now he was just sitting there, deep in thought and drinking his coffee.

Had they done something to make him suspicious of them? 

But before she could think further on this, lunch was over and it was time for a meeting.

“How far are we, Futaba?” Makoto asked from the head of the table as Akira had once again let her lead the meeting. Their leader must hate leading meeting as he did this at every opportunity.

“Going by my scans and the map we found, I’d say nearly halfway through,” their youngest member answered.

“Hmm,” Makoto made as she considered their situation, “I haven’t heard anything about the psychotic breakdowns yet...”

Akechi immediately reacted to that topic, “you believe Okumura-san to be responsible for the psychotic breakdowns.”

“Well, yes,” Makoto confirmed, even if they all knew that Okumura was not causing them, but she wanted Akechi to believe that they had fallen into Shido’s trap completely, “but I would like to hear your opinion, Ace Detective Akechi.”

“Haha, you flatter me, Niijima-san,” the detective laughed pleasantly before making his thinking pose and replying, “to be honest, I have noticed that Okumura-san has been benefitting the most from the psychotic breakdowns as well as the mental shutdowns – I have even discussed this possibility with Sae-san, but there were also the Phantom Thieves to consider. To be frank, I believed that Okumura-san and the Phantom Thieves were working together.”

“What do you think now, Akechi-kun?” Haru asked him.

“Well, I can certainly rule out a collaboration,” he looked deep in thought for a moment, “as for Okumura’s involvement in the mental shutdown incidents ...I think it’s weird that we have not found anything about them yet. I may not be as familiar with the workings of this world as you all, but I would think that a shadow would tell us about such a big secret.”

“You are correct, Akechi-kun,” Makoto confirmed, “but we can’t be sure until we have stolen his treasure.”

“Yeah, lets do this!” Ryuji shouted excited and even stood up, “I’m ready to kick some ass!”

\--

They did go and kicked some ass in the Disposal Line of the factory. This part of the palace was a mix of the two parts before to get to the next safe room where they filled in again and gathered around the table.

“How is everyone?” Akira asked.

There were several versions of “fine, but tired” and Akira was sure that some of his friends would have some bruises after today ...well, normally, Akira wouldn’t have pushed them this hard but being fatigued faster meant that they would have to stop securing the infiltration route sooner and the longer they took for the dungeon the longer they had to prepare for Okumura's confession.

“Let’s go home for today,” Makoto suggested, “we are out of coffee anyways.”

“I agree,” Yusuke spoke up, “today has been very tiring.”

“Well duh, Inari,” Futaba added her two cents, “we’ve been fighting shadows like crazy!”

“But we’ve also got two new members!” Ann added cheerfully, “which reminds me, we already got to know Haru-chan, but I know nearly nothing about Akechi-kun.”

“Me?” Akechi asked, “I’m afraid there’s not much to tell. I’m just an ordinary high school student who works as a detective.”

“Come on, don’t be shy!” Ann insisted in a too high voice ...and her acting had started so well this time, “I know, lets do the same thing we did for Futaba-chan for Akechi-kun!”

“You mean to spend time with Akechi to get him used to us?” Yusuke asked for clarification, even though he knew this to be part of their “lets keep Akechi busy” plan.

Ryuji still groaned at the thought, “do we have to?” Akira just hoped they weren’t laying on too thick.

Akechi chuckled nervously, “I don’t think that is necessary.” 

“I like that idea,” Haru protested smiling, “I think it would help us grow closer as a team.”

“That may be true,” it was Makoto’s turn to insist, “getting to know each other has always improved our teamwork in battle. And it would help you get a better picture of what kind of people we, the Phantom Thieves, are. It might even help in proving our conviction in our justice to you.”

“Well,” Akechi’s TV smile was in place, but his voice betrayed the hesitation he felt.

“Nope!” Futaba suddenly shouted, “you’re not getting out if this – I had to go through this, too!”

As the detective was momentarily lost for words, Akira simply decided: “We’ve got no choice then. We start tomorrow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to use this opportunity to beg for forgiveness for the long wait ...I'm so sorry and this work is not abandoned!


End file.
